Avenging
by DB Sommer
Summary: It's a fusion of Ranma 12 and Marvel's Avengers. Chapter 1 lays the groundwork for what's to come as it deals with several of the heroes origins. (Chapter 15 is an information guide for those who want to catch up fast)
1. A Plague of Heroes

  
Prologue  
  
  
Time is not absolute.  
  
To many, the exact meaning of that phrase would be impossible to understand. Time is nothing more than what happens as one second moves onward to the next. For all of the sayings that involve it, such as 'killing time' or making time', the fact is most do not know how to do anything other than watch time progress in a straight line, from one moment to the next. For them, time is absolute.  
  
However, to the man seated upon the onyx throne, staring across the stone towers of an enormous castle, (one not built by the hands of anything human but claimed by one nonetheless) gazing at the vastness of infinity at the Center of Time, the meaning was all too clear. It was the mantra of his life. The definition of his existence.   
  
The man took a moment to raise the blue faceplate that covered his visage and examined his purple-gauntleted hand. Within that palm lay power. Power in the form of a number of devices that could freeze molecules, stun nerves, pulverize matter, or simply kill. So much power held within his grasp, and even more throughout the rest of the green and purple armor that adorned his body. Yet even that was nothing compared to his control over one of the fundamental forces of the universe.   
  
Time was not absolute. Time was his plaything.  
  
However, there were limits to what even he could accomplish with his 'plaything', at least for the moment. One day he would not simply toy with time. It would be more than a tool he employed; he would be the true master of it. He would be a god in the absolute sense of the word. That was what he needed to achieve his dreams, to keep what he wanted safe forever. Nothing less than absolute control would be satisfactory.   
  
However, claiming the mantle of ultimate power was for later. At the moment, he had other, more important plans to initiate. Plans that did not involve becoming the master of time, but rather, to save the one, single thing in the universe that truly mattered to him. It was, after all, why he had set his path of destiny on its present course. He would have been nothing if not for that thing which had been taken from him. That thing that he craved more than anything in the world. More than his own life. More than his own soul.  
  
After so many decades he at last had enough power to fulfill the burning dream that had haunted him every moment since the incident. Were he still the lesser man he had been in the past, he would have burst out in tears. The time had come. It was the first occasion he could use his mastery over the flows to actually change time itself. Regrettably, his powers in this were still severely limited, otherwise he would simply be able to affect the base of the timeline from an earlier point and ensure that the event would not come to pass at all. But he did not have the precise control necessary to be certain he would not effect his own destiny, and create a mobius loop that would feed back on itself and destroy the entire timeline rather than save it. No. Years of research assured him that he had only a limited opportunity to affect the event without changing everything.   
  
It was true he could simply have remained where he was, gaining more control and embark on a less risky plan, but he could wait no longer. Even for the master of time, every second seemed an eternity. And there was no one who understood eternity better than him.   
  
The moment had come to set forth into the past, not that there was actually a past or present at this place in the Center of Time, but he used the moment of the 'accident' as the starting point. Everything before it was the past. Everything after it, the future. Everything he did, everything he became, hinged on that single moment.   
  
He lowered the faceplate to mask his identity from those that might recognize him in that time period. The chance was not great, but even the smallest chance was too much of a risk. Softly he spoke to no one but himself.   
  
"I can stop them. I will find a way to kill them all. It won't be a problem. All I need is time."  
  
  
  
Avenging  
  
Chapter1  
A Plague of Heroes  
  
  
A Ranma 1/2/Avengers fusion.  
  
Ranma 1/2 owned by Rumiko Takahashi and whomever she sold the rights to.  
The Avengers are owned by Marvel Comics. Yes, the superheroes, not the British TV Series  
  
As always, all C+C appreciated. You can contact me at:   
sommer@3rdm.net  
  
Avenging is being kept at:  
  
Doug's Archive at:  
http://www.theisp.net/pages/catman/  
  
Slashley's page at  
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Shrine/5747/  
  
And my own page at:  
http://angcobra.jumpfun.com/dbsommer.html  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
  
  
Eleven years ago:  
  
Nodoka's eyes inevitably found themselves coming back to the papers that sat on the table of her reading room. She had looked them over a dozen times already. Reading them again would not change the words that rested on those pages. Worse, reading them again would only anger her, or sadden her. Perhaps it would do both, and she had already raged and cried all that she cared to. Best to leave the damn things where they were, or, if honor had not said otherwise, throw them into a fire and pretend they had never arrived at all.   
  
No. There was no point in denying it. If she tried to rip her gaze from them and somehow summoned the courage to exit the room and leave the papers behind, she would just obsess about them in her mind over and over until it was worse than if she had read them again.  
  
She took a deep breath and promised herself it would be the last time she looked over them before tossing the whole lot in some drawer and ignore them until the next day. It was the same promise she had made on three separate occasions before, all in the last hour. This time she believed she might have even meant it.   
  
There were actually many papers that sat in a small pile next to her cup of sake. Most of them made absolutely no sense to her. There were notes on chemistry and biology. Reports on human physiology and reactions from tests. Details on chemical equations with symbols that were nothing more than gibberish to her. To those papers, all she could do was stare at the sheets in uncomprehending wonder. The only thing she did understand was the single sheet of paper that was apart from the others. The important one. The one she was agonizing over.   
  
She picked up the white sheet and read it again:  
  
  
My dearest daughter,  
  
If you are reading this, I am now dead. Since this is my will, that comes as no surprise to you. I do not know how I died, but in truth it does not matter. I lived and I died, just like everyone else. What difference does it make in how the end comes?  
  
I know there were many hard feelings between us, and I cannot deny that I was the cause of most of them. I make no excuses for my behavior, other than to say that it was unfair to you and your mother. My past haunted me my entire life, though if it had not been for you and your mother I would not have lived as long as I did. For this, I thank you.  
  
As a scientist, I worked for the government, doing all I could for my Emperor and country, and in the end you suffered for it. The long hours I spent away from you, not allowing you to see me for more than six or seven hours a week while growing up, took their toll. And the few times I did come by, I scarcely gave you the attention you deserved, obsessing about the project I had been given that would change the world.   
  
For years this continued. It was not until you married and moved out that I realized I had all but missed my only daughter's life. Even when I tried to apologize, I knew deep in my heart it was too late. You rejected me, and justifiably so. If it is any consolation to you, know that I always loved you, even when it did not seem that way.   
  
In a way, your rejection was the catalyst for all that happened later. It shocked me out of my soft, sealed world and forced me to look at everything around me in a new light. It was also around that time that I realized there was something wrong about my superiors. The project we were working on was supposed to be for the good of all, but that was a lie. Those that held the reigns of power sought to control what I had been about to unleash, for themselves and their own private play for control. Rather than give them what they sought, I tricked them, distorting the experiment in such a way that they believed the process itself was flawed. For years I toiled in feigned suffering at my supposed lack of progress and the stone wall I had hit. They tried employing others to assist me, but none understood the process like I did, and I saw to it they did not learn.   
  
After a full decade, they released me from my service, little realizing that in the time I had made 'no progress', I had, in fact, perfected the process. Despite my seeming release, I suspected they still watched, and so I pretended to be nothing more than a frustrated old man, completely useless to them. In secret, I wrote down the formula and process necessary to make the object that was sought so eagerly by them and hid it from others' eyes. Now that I am dead, they will be watching no longer. You will be safe.  
  
All the documents that exist concerning my creation are within the package you have received. The only sample of the formula that exists is there as well. The culmination of years of research is in your hands. Give this formula to the public. Let the world make of it what they will. Just be certain it goes out to all. Do not let this fall into any one person's hands. It is meant to benefit the world. The entire world, not just those that would hoard this knowledge to themselves.   
  
This is the only thing I ask of you, my daughter.  
  
Goodbye.  
  
  
Nodoka finished reading the letter for what seemed like the hundredth time. She had read it nonstop since it had arrived in the early hours of the morning. Now it was evening, and at last she had run out of tears. This was her father's dying wish. No matter how much she had resented her father in life, she was a proper daughter. She would see to the instructions he had left, regardless of how much the discovery would change the world.   
  
And it would change the world. That was more than a little frightening. She had in her hands the ability to turn the world upside down. What was in her hands was knowledge unknown to anyone else. Once again she silently wondered what her father was thinking in giving her this burden to bear. Perhaps she was the only one he truly trusted. A bitter irony, since she had most certainly had little enough trust for him.   
  
She was deciding exactly how to go about distributing the information when she heard a cry come from the backyard. There was no mistaking who it was. Couldn't he do anything right? Nodoka Saotome placed her latest glass of sake next to the vial of green liquid and rose from the chair to head towards the backyard.  
  
The scene was exactly as she suspected. Genma was standing over five-year old Ranma, berating him for being clumsy for the thousandth time. The boy was uncoordinated and small, even for his age. And his skills in the martial arts were pathetic, even taking Genma's patience to the limit, and no one was more adamant for Ranma to become a martial artist than him. She truly worried Ranma wasn't going to grow up to be a man among men and end up a disgrace to himself and to her family. Perhaps it was a good idea to engage him to one of the Tendo girls. If he continued on the course he was currently on, no woman would be interested in him and the arranged marriage would be the only way Nodoka would ever see grandchildren.   
  
Maybe she was getting ahead of herself. The death of her father was simply causing her to unduly worry about family, she supposed. Ranma may have been something of a disappointment thus far, but he was her son. Although perhaps she and Genma should try for another, just in case.   
  
She caught Genma's attention and told him they needed to speak without Ranma present. Genma did as he was asked and dismissed the boy inside, then heard his wife's story, listening intently to every word. Genma promised to put his mind on how to properly distribute the information she had been given and how to honor her father's request, after he fixed himself a snack, naturally.  
  
Nodoka went to gather the papers and the sample to show her husband. When she entered the room she saw Ranma was already there, making some kind of furtive motion with the papers on the table.   
  
"Ranma! Get away from there!" Nodoka quickly moved the boy out of the way only to discover what it was he had been doing.   
  
"I din't do it!" Ranma quickly blurted out.  
  
She looked down in horror at the sight before her. Ranma had knocked over the sake and tried to wipe it up with the papers. The result was a smearing of the ink to the degree that no more than a handful of symbols were legible on any of the sheets of paper. The rest was a giant blue blob. No one would be able to make anything out of it.   
  
She gazed at the scene in horror until one thought broke through the others. The sample. She turned to get it and saw that it was empty, not even a drop remaining in the glass vial. As though it would somehow do some good, she grabbed it and held it in her hand. Her father's legacy to the world was lost for all time now.  
  
"I din't drink it!" Ranma blurted out again.  
  
Nodoka's suddenly-narrowed eyes slowly turned to look at her son. When Ranma said he didn't do something, that meant he always did it. She could see a small smudge of green remaining on his chin.   
  
Ranma's look of nervousness changed to confusion. He looked downward, as though to examine himself. His small child's hands moved over his body, trying to locate the odd feeling that seemed to permeate his entire being. He even rolled up his sleeves and began poking at his arm. Within moments, Nodoka could see her son's form begin to shift, a change that seemed to cause him to grow right before her eyes. Tiny muscles formed over his emaciated frame as he began to fill out his gi. He grew a couple of inches and it appeared as though he gained almost thirty pounds in an instant.   
  
"Mommy, what just happened?" he asked as the change abruptly stopped, demonstrating no readily apparent harmful side-effects. Nodoka remained motionless as she looked him over. The face was the same, but his body had changed dramatically. Her son appeared perfectly fine. Better than fine. He was now a specimen of perfect youth.  
  
Ranma started jumping around, testing his new body. "Wow! I can jump really high. WHEEE!"  
  
It was true, Ranma was jumping up and down higher than he ever had without falling over or stumbling, like he usually did. Nodoka's mind raced with possibilities as she watched her son run and tumble like an acrobat, his coordination seemingly flawless. Perhaps there was still a way to honor her father's wishes and use the so-called super-soldier serum to help the world.   
  
"Genma!" she cried out. "Come in here, and bring a piece of paper and some ink. You and Ranma are going to go on a long trip!"  
  
  
Ten years ago:  
  
Kodachi Kunou watched in fascination as she mixed the chemicals once again. According to the book she had, the combination should fizzle for a few moments, then turn black. It was a simple chemical reaction. No surprise there; it was from a simple chemical set. She had only just found it just yesterday in the attic, one of those many places where she wasn't allowed to go, but she had risked it, wanting so desperately to explore. Father so rarely let her out of the house, and she had to do something. He was nowhere near as fun as her mother had been. Her mother would do all sorts of fun things with her, like play house, teach her how to cook, and take her shopping with the servants. But then she died last year, essentially leaving Kodachi alone. Sasuke treated her nicely enough, but the absence of her mother was a wound Kodachi had not come close to healing yet. She did try to meet everything with resolve, though. Her father hated it when she cried. Sometimes she was able to hold the tears back when she thought of her mother. Sometimes.  
  
Things had been especially boring of late, so it had been a great delight when she stumbled across the old chemistry set with everything still intact. It had probably belonged to her big brother. Her mother would buy Tatewaki all sorts of gifts, but he never used them. He preferred playing with his sword and pretending he was a samurai. He would never play that with her though because she was a girl. Like that was some reason for not being able to swing one of those silly wooden swords. Her brother was stupid.  
  
She was sitting cross-legged on the floor, still watching the chemical reaction, when her father came into the room and saw what she was doing. He was next to the set in a flash and kicked it over, spilling the chemicals all over the floor and staining the carpet badly.   
  
Kodachi couldn't understand why her father did that. It wasn't fair. It had been her set and he had kicked and ruined it for no reason. Her first impulse was to speak up, but she couldn't do it. If she talked back to her father she would be punished. So instead she bowed her head and accepted her father's harsh words.  
  
"Whad do ya tink ya doin, l'il wahine? Watchya doin' is just crazy. Pharmaceuticals ain't got no future. How many times do I got to tell ya, munitions and pineapples are da way ta go?"  
  
Kodachi nodded at the reprimand as her father continued. "I tell ya what I'll do, since ya want ta learn so much, I'll get ya some instruction manuals on de makin' of munitions and horticulture. Den ya can sho me what you learned. How's 'dat sound?"  
  
Kodachi looked at her father in astonishment. He was actually volunteering to get her something and wanted her to show him what she had done. She could at last receive some of the love and affection of her father that he always showered Tatchi with.  
  
She nodded her head eagerly. She would master everything she could about munitions and pineapples, just like her father wanted.   
  
  
Nine years ago:   
  
Ukyou Kuonji looked at the fly resting twenty meters away on the tree. It was a difficult shot, even for her, but she was certain she could nail it. She was about to release her shaft when her father's voice rang out.  
  
"What do you think you're doing with that bow?"  
  
Ukyou let it fall to her side and gave an exasperated sigh. "I'm trying to get that fly on that tree." She pointed in the direction the fly was.   
  
"Why aren't you using your spatulas?"  
  
This time she rolled her eyes. He knew darn well why she didn't use the spatulas. Still, if he needed another demonstration, she could give it to him. She pulled one out of her the mini-bandoleer, which she wore to placate her father, took careful aim, and threw it at the fly. The spatula missed the entire tree by three feet.   
  
"See?" she said in a tired tone. "Now watch this." She picked up the bow once more and notched an arrow. It only took her a moment to sight in the fly and let loose with the arrow. She nailed it dead center. Her smile of satisfaction switched to a smirk, which she directed at her father, who seemed even more displeased.   
  
"If you put half as much time in practicing with the spatulas as you do with that bow, you could do that with the family weapons as well." There seemed to be a little uncertainty in the statement, as though he was trying to convince himself of the truth of it.  
  
"I practice twice as much with the spatulas as I do with my bow, and I still can't hit anything." She placed her hands on her hips and pouted. Her father was such a jackass sometimes, not that she would ever say that to his face.  
  
Tatsumi Kuonji sighed and gave up on trying to teach the wisdom of spatulas over bow and arrows for the day and the duo started back to their yatai.   
  
Ukyou always preferred to practice archery some distance away from her father. Otherwise he would yell at her like he did now and try to get her to use her dumb spatulas, which she couldn't use worth a darn anyway. Why couldn't her father just accept the fact she was a natural with a bow and not a spatula? So what if the okonomiyaki combat arts had been in her family for generations? Things had to change with time, didn't they?  
  
As they made their way to the cart, they both spotted a little boy in a white gi, grabbing several okonomiyaki that Ukyou's father had left on the grill when he had gone to look for his daughter. Instantly, Ukyou went for the bow that had been slung across her back. She had done this procedure several times before when thieves came by and tried running off with their wares. With her marksmanship, it was a simple matter to snare their clothing with an arrow and nail them to a tree, allowing her father to beat the offender up and send the thief on his way. Kuonji-style justice.  
  
The little boy stuck one in his mouth as he leaped off the cart and headed for a cluster of nearby trees. It was almost too easy as Ukyou notched an arrow and drew back on the bow. She had the loose material near the shoulder of his gi dead in her sights and her tree picked out as she released the arrow, the bolt aiming true. And watched as it...  
  
...embedded itself in the tree, the boy having darted in mid-air out of the way.   
  
Ukyou stared at the arrow in disbelief. She had missed? Impossible. She was such a natural with a bow she had not missed any target in a year. And she had been certain everything had been lined up perfectly. There was no wind at all and the arrow was straight; the shot should have struck home. No one was fast enough to dodge an arrow in mid-air, especially a little boy.  
  
Tatsumi Kuonji placed a hand on his daughter's shoulder. "Don't let it get you down. These things happen."  
  
"Not to me," Ukyou mumbled under her breath. Her whole day now ruined.  
  
It was a feeling she was about to become familiar with.  
  
The next day Ukyou was mirroring her father's actions in his making of an okonomiyaki. She might not have been able to use the family weapons worth a damn, but she could still learn cooking skills from her father. It was as he turned from the grill to grab some ingredients behind him that the diminutive, gi-clad figure returned, dropping down from an overhead branch and landing on the cart. In a flash he made off with the okonomiyaki that Tatsumi had been in the process of making.   
  
Ukyou grabbed her bow and a single arrow, lining the thief up once again. The day before was just a fluke. This time she would get him for sure. She released the arrow, her eye tracking the progress as it once again sailed for the thief. Unbelievably, he turned at the last second, the arrow missing him by less than a centimeter.   
  
Ukyou stood there, dumbfounded at what she had just witnessed. It wasn't fair that he could do that. She was just about to throw her bow to the ground when she saw the boy pause for a moment to smile through the okonomiyaki in his mouth to wave at her. He then took off into the cover of the forest once again.   
  
If the little snot showed his face again, she was aiming for his butt, Ukyou swore to herself.  
  
The next day Ukyou remained alert, wondering if the thief would have the nerve to show his face near her cart again. Her bow was at her side, ready to be used at a moment's notice. She even had where the arrow would end up neatly planned in her mind, making certain to use a dull tip that would get little in the way of penetration. All he had to do was show up one more time.   
  
The first clue she had to the thief's return was when he springboarded off her head, shoving her face into a batch of okonomiyaki sauce. As quickly as she could, she wiped the sauce out of her eyes and grabbed her bow, sensing its location more from instinct than by sight.   
  
By the time she had removed the sauce, she saw that the thief had made off with yet another okonomiyaki and was escaping in the same direction he had the day before. With a cry of, "Die, Jackass!" she once again notched an arrow and targeted the boy's behind. Despite the larger target, he again dodged the arrow in mid-flight, this time taking a moment to wave at Ukyou before darting under the cover of the forest.  
  
Her incoherent screams caused her to miss the thoughtful gleam in her father's eye.  
  
  
It was two nights later, and two more days of missing shots at white gi-clad thieves, that Tatsumi Kuonji ate his dinner while watching his daughter fashion a new arrow. She had been hard at work for close to an hour before she at last broke off and looked to her father.   
  
"Daddy, do we have any nitroglycerin?"  
  
The food that had been in Tatsumi Kuonji's mouth a moment before ended up spat into the fire. "What would you need that for?" he managed to splutter out.  
  
"I'm gonna make a blast arrow and blow that thief's butt up!" she said intently as she tried figuring out how to modify her arrow so that it could hold a container of explosives and still fly true.   
  
That was it. Tatsumi Kuonji decided it was time to let Ukyou in on the fact he had secretly tracked the boy down after the second time and had struck a deal with his father to keep the boy coming around to 'train' with Ukyou. But now he was going to have to tell her the truth. There was no telling what his daughter was going to come up with next in order to stop her unknowing training partner. If there was one thing about Ukyou that reminded Tatsumi about her mother, it was that she could get pretty obsessed about something and would come up with all sorts of ideas to get what she wanted.   
  
  
The days seemed to flow into one another as Tatsumi watched his daughter cheerfully prepare yet another okonomiyaki in the traditional Kuonji manner. Ukyou did not have anywhere near the skill her father had when he had been her age, the difference in skill level painfully obvious to Tatsumi, but at least her culinary skills were intact.   
  
Ukyou herself was unaware of the warm smile he gave her as her young hands worked deft magic in preparing the food. Sometimes she reminded him so much of her mother it hurt. Her happiness was what mattered to him most in the world. It was as he was looking at that young face that he noticed the troubled look it had. "What's wrong, Hawkeye?"  
  
"Daddy!" Ukyou protested as she stopped cooking and placed her hands on her hips. "Ranchan is the only one who can call me that."  
  
Tatsumi apologized for his mistake. The tale of how she had picked up that nickname from her young friend had been amusing. Apparently, the two had been spending time with one another, Ranma watching Ukyou shoot at targets for archery practice. It was as she hit dead center of the target, splitting the arrow already lodged there, that Ranma had said, 'Nice shooting, Hawkeye.' When Ukyou asked what he had meant by that, Ranma had said that since she hit the 'hawkeye' on all of the targets all of the time, that should be her nickname. Even after Ukyou explained that the center of the target was a bull's eye, he said he thought the name was cute and that she should have it. Apparently she agreed, and one 'Ranchan' later, the two used their pet names for each other all of the time.   
  
"So what's troubling you, hon?" he asked, getting back to the matter at hand.   
  
Ukyou blushed a little bit, then seemed to take an inordinate interest in the ground. "I like Ranchan a lot."  
  
"That's nice." This was something of a surprise. Ukyou usually blurted out what was on her mind without a second's hesitation. That she should suddenly be cautious of what she said signaled something was up.   
  
"He said he's going to go away soon."  
  
He saw the pout form on her features. Now it all made sense. "I'm sorry to hear that. You two were such good friends."  
  
Ukyou paused another moment before looking up in her father's eyes and exclaiming, "I want to go with him. He promised to take care of me already." At least he had when she had made the secret sauce the other day. "Please, can I go with him."  
  
Tatsumi Kuonji sighed as he knew the battle was already lost. His daughter had unleashed her puppy dog eye look, an attack he had no defense against. It was time to talk to Genma. The man was lazy, but he seemed the reasonable sort. Besides, what could go wrong? All he could do was say no.  
  
  
As Tatsumi stared at the dirty figure of his daughter by the campfire light, he reflected again at just how wrong a man can be. He watched her carefully as her red-rimmed eyes stared intensely at the arrow she was fletching in her hands.   
  
"What are you doing, hon?"  
  
Ukyou Kuonji stopped fletching and gave her father the most serious look of her six-year old life. She raised the half-made arrow up, allowing the light to glow off the wooden surface. "I'm making the arrow with Ranchan's name on it."  
  
Her father could indeed make out the characters that clearly spelled out 'Ranchan' on the shaft. Part of him hoped, for Ranma's sake, he never met Ukyou again.  
  
  
Eight years and ten months ago:  
  
Mousse looked in every direction, confirming that he and his companion's presence had still gone undetected. He turned back for a moment, seeing that Shampoo was still doing little more than staring off into space. That meant it was up to him again to take the initiative. He grabbed her hand, gently tugging it in his direction. Shampoo reacted to the force and seemed to focus on him, yet remained silent. Despite not speaking, she stood up and tensed her body. Mousse hoped that meant she was ready to follow his lead again.  
  
The pair moved silently to the edge of the deck of the cargo ship they were on. All of the crewmen seemed too busy unloading the huge containers that had been in the hold to pay attention to two small stowaways. Quietly, they clung to the shadows, making their way to the railing and leapt over it, landing on the wooden dock below. They rushed as quickly as they could, while still maintaining their stealth, to the alleyway between two nearby warehouses. Mousse stopped first, Shampoo not saying a word and going motionless at the same time. They hid behind some empty cardboard boxes and caught their breath. Their journey from China had at last ended, and they were safe, if anywhere could truly be called safe to a pair of six-year old children with neither a past nor a future in a country where only one could marginally speak the language.   
  
There was a great deal of light from the full moon and nearby lamps that were strung up outside the warehouses. In the shadows of the alley, Mousse could just make out Shampoo's desolate face. It was the same one she had worn since they were forced to flee. He placed an arm around Shampoo and tried to console her. "We're safe. I told you I'd lead us to safety. I took care of you, just like I promised."  
  
There was no response from Shampoo. Silence had been her only answer to all of his comments and queries since the second day they had left behind their home. If anything, she had gotten worse in the time since they had left, for now it was more than silence that caused him to fear for her. Her eyes, which had held the same sorrow that Mousse had felt, now lacked anything resembling emotion. He almost wished she would cry again, like she had when they first set off on their journey.  
  
Had it been only ten days since they had been happy in their perfect world? It seemed more like ten years since either one of them had known peace. But it had all come crashing down, and now neither of them would ever be the same.  
  
It had started out innocently enough. Shampoo had gone out to the countryside to practice her hunting skills and Mousse had tagged along to tell her how much he loved her. It turned out like all of the other times he had followed her. He told her he loved her, she yelled at him for messing up her concentration and to leave her alone. It was while Shampoo was reprimanding him yet again for mistaking another log for her that they heard the sounds of explosions coming from the direction of the village. From their vantage point, they witnessed a huge fireball blossoming in the area the village was located. After several moments a wave of heat rushed over them, making them shield their faces even from that great a distance. After standing there in shock for close to a full minute, Shampoo snapped out of it. She gave out a cry and ran towards the village, Mousse behind her an instant later.   
  
They had made it about halfway to the village when a diminutive form staggered through some bushes and onto the path before them. It was a blackened figure, charred horribly and reeking of burned flesh. It took them a moment to understand that it was in fact a human being, and not some animal that had staggered before them.   
  
Shampoo and Mousse were still recoiling at the sight when it turned its less burned side, the one with recognizable human features and its one good eye, towards them and spoke, "You. I know you. You are...Shan Pu," she said to the young purple-haired Amazon. It turned part-way to stare at the other figure. "And you are Mu Tse."  
  
As the figure identified the pair, they at last were able to place a name to the voice. It was their village matriarch, Be Dea, the single most powerful person in the village.   
  
The two stood there in mute horror as the horribly burned figure began speaking once again, this time in a distant voice. "All gone. All gone. Should never have challenged them. We were less than gnats before their power. The government...just one plane. She was right. Should never have..." The good eye rolled back into her head for a moment. Both of the children thought for certain she was dead and would fall over at any moment, but after several seconds her eye came back and focused on the children before her.   
  
"You're alive. Not everyone...dead. You're alive!"  
  
Neither Mousse or Shampoo missed the reference. Shampoo spoke first. "Dead? Everyone's dead? What about my mother and father? I know they aren't dead."  
  
Mousse's hope mirrored Shampoo's. "My parents are alive too, right?"  
  
"BE SILENT!" Be Dea shouted. The two children, taught to obey their Matriarch without question, did so.  
  
Be Dea began mumbling in a quiet voice, swaying back and forth. "You must survive. Someone must survive. Listen to me and obey. You will travel to Japan and find a woman named Ku Lon. Tell her who you are and what family you belong to and she will protect you. She...must."   
  
The eye, which had the children's complete attention, began to take on a milky cast to it as it glazed over. Be Dea's voice took on a rambling tone. "Oh, you were right. You were so right. Why didn't I listen to you? I should never have hated you for being right. I should never have...blinded...you."   
  
She shook for a moment, as though the words themselves and lashed out at her, causing her to regain her senses. Once more she focused on the children before her. "You must leave now. Go to Japan. Run! Run and never look back!"  
  
The two tried to protest, but the glare from that single eye silenced them. "Obey me!" she growled one last time, and the two did. They turned from her slowly at first, but picking up speed with each step, their sobs and tears increasing with their gait.  
  
Be Dea's final words followed behind them, as though the Matriarch herself was moving them onward. "Run! Run and never look back! Your past is gone! You can never go back! Never!"  
  
Those were the last words they heard as they ran until they could run no more. The tears continued long after their muscles tired, but in the end they ran out of those as well. It was as they lay, exhausted from their run, that deep in their hearts the truth was accepted, as much as they wished to deny it. Everything, everyone they had ever known was gone. The explosion had clearly signaled the death knell of the tribe. Their way of life was now nothing but ashes, quite literally if the size of the fireball was any indication.   
  
In spite of that knowledge, Mousse believed he would have gone back anyway. After all, what was there in the world for him a six-year old Chinese boy that had never been more than twenty miles from his village in his entire life? But there was one thing that kept him from being completely consumed by his grief, one force that gave him the will to continue on. Shampoo. He had to protect her. That was the last thing in his young life that mattered to him, perhaps more than anything in the world. Now he had a goal: getting Shampoo safely to Japan. After they got there he would deal with his life as best as he could. He swore he would do everything in his power to get her there, even if it cost him his life.  
  
After that first night of being alone in the world, Shampoo changed. She had not shed a single tear since then, and her eyes took on a lonely, distant cast. It took everything Mousse had to get her to even acknowledge his presence, and even then it was only in the motions of her body rather than with any open recognition. She was obedient though, once he got her attention she did everything he said without a gesture of disagreement. She followed him when he told her to, and stayed when he said to as well. It was entirely upon his shoulders to lead both of them to Japan safely.  
  
After breaking into a farmer's home and stealing some food and money, the two headed for the coast. They got lucky and managed to stowaway on a train that led them to a port city. Their luck continued to hold as they once again stowed away, this time on a cargo ship bound for Japan. And now they were there, crouched in an alleyway like two thieves, trying to catch their breath and without any idea of how to find the person Be Dea had told them to seek. Mousse wasn't sure what to do next.  
  
"What have we here?"  
  
The tone of that voice snapped Mousse out of his reminiscing. Both he and Shampoo turned towards the sound of the voice behind them. Mousse had been so relieved at not being caught on the ship that he had not paid attention to the area around them. There were now three large, burly men that had maneuvered behind them, spread out in such as way as to prevent them from running past. All of them were dressed in seedy clothing and reeked badly of alcohol. The look in their eyes told Mousse all he needed to know about them.   
  
Mousse placed a hand on Shampoo's shoulder, pulling her back even as he began walking backward, leaving his eyes on the three men the entire time. Since Shampoo was responsive, their chances were good that if they could get to the mouth of the alleyway, they could make a break for it.   
  
"I told you I saw a couple of kids dart back here."  
  
Mousse stiffened at the sound of that voice. It had come from behind him. Slowly, he turned to see three more men at the mouth of the alleyway. It had been a trap. Now there was no easy way out.   
  
All of the men began to approach the pair. One of the individuals from the mouth of the alleyway spoke. "The girl's a pretty little thing. We can get a good price for her."  
  
"Might be able to get an even better price for the boy. I know a couple of wealthy men that prefer young boys to girls."  
  
The men all laughed at that, relaxing noticeably since it appeared the two children were paralyzed with fright. Mousse also noticed this and allowed one of his hands to disappear up the sleeve of his dirty robe. None of the men seemed suspicious of the movement.   
  
Another of the large men, one that had come from the mouth of the alleyway, placed a hand on Mousse's shoulder. "Why don't you little guys come with us? We got some candy back at ouAGH!" The man cried out in pain as Mousse pulled a knife from the confines of his robe and sunk it into the man's wrist.  
  
"Run, Shampoo!" he shouted as he darted past the injured man, and to freedom.  
  
Shampoo had already been in motion the instant the knife flashed from Mousse's robes. She spun, lashing out with a foot and catching the shin of the man nearest to her. As he fell to the ground, holding his leg, she let loose with a fist towards his surprised companion's groin, doubling him over in pain.  
  
With those three down, the mouth of the alleyway was now open. Both of the young children made a break for it. Mousse was almost out of the alleyway when he caught a movement out of the corner of his eye, from Shampoo's direction. He turned just enough to see that one of the uninjured men had made a flying tackle at Shampoo, just catching her fleeing form by the ankles. She fell to the ground in his grasp.   
  
"Shampoo!" Mousse cried out, only to discover his hesitation had cost him as one of the other men caught up and swung a small metal object at his head. There was pain, and then the world went dark for Mousse.   
  
  
Mousse woke up to a world of pain he had not thought possible. Every inch of his body ached, even parts he hadn't realized existed. He opened his eyes only to be confronted by pitch blackness. Painfully, he tried to sit up, his hand falling in some kind of sticky substance. As he forced himself to roll over, he became aware of the fact he was lying in a small pool of it, some of it had even gotten in his eyes. A moment later, after he tried wiping it off, he became aware of the overwhelmingly foul odor the substance gave off as well. It was perhaps the strongest, and foulest scent, that he had ever had the displeasure of experiencing.   
  
As he moved, new waves of pain began permeating his entire body, threatening to make him pass out. As his consciousness began to fade, one thought cut through the agony and forced him to remain awake.   
  
Shampoo.   
  
He still had to protect her. All of his will was focused on that one thought and made himself stay awake. Through the pain, he at last managed to make himself stand up. Once again he tried focusing his vision, in spite of the fact there was no light, and attempted to navigate his way through the dark. It was as groped his way through the pitch black room that 'it' happened. His first thought was that is eyes were now finally clear of the goo and had finally adjusted to the darkness, but no. Even when he blinked to closed his eyes 'it' was still there. He didn't know what it was, but somehow he could now sense where everything was. He could make out the edges and contours of the objects around him as clearly as though they had been lit, although there was still no light that he could see. He had once heard that bats could sense things around them, even in pitch darkness. Maybe this was something like that. Regardless, the whole sensation was quite unlike anything he had experience in his short lifetime.   
  
The room itself was extremely large and with a high ceiling. There were a great many square and rectangular objects spread throughout the room. Mousse thought it might have been one of the warehouses that had dotted the docks they had landed on. The size and dimensions of the room seemed to lend itself to that idea, which was good enough for him.  
  
He continued focusing his newfound sense on the world around him, until he at last sensed what he thought was a door, across the room from him. Slowly, he began to make his way to the door, pain accompanying him every step of the way. It seemed to take forever as he at last made his way to the door. Given the shape he was in, there was little chance he could fight anyone that might be in the room beyond, but doing nothing, trying to live not knowing Shampoo's fate, would be far worse than any further blows he might suffer.  
  
The door handle turned easily enough. As it opened, his new sense seemed to stretch out now that the obstacle of the door was no longer present. Everything was still pitch black, though he knew his eyes were open. Why were there no lights? Didn't these people need to see?   
  
He walked into the room and immediately sensed something wrong. There were a half dozen lumps strewn about the floor and the scent of blood filled his nostrils. Slowly, he approached one of the shapes. As he drew closer, he could now make out that it was the shape of a body, one far too large to be Shampoo's. He forced himself to bend down and touch the body. His hand brushed against the flesh of the face, and he could feel a faint warmth coming from it, but fading quickly. Mousse continued feeling the body, hoping to come across a weapon of some kind. It was as his hand was drifting over it that he discovered the source of the blood. A deep cut was across the man's abdomen, disemboweling him.   
  
Mousse pulled his hand away in a flash. He did not cared if the man's body held a weapon or not; he would touch it no longer.   
  
"Shampoo!" Mousse at last cried out, no longer concerned if anyone heard him. If there was anyone left to hear him. He knew in his heart that these were the bodies of the men that had abducted both he and Shampoo. The young girl was certainly skilled for her age, but even if she had been armed there was no way possible she could have killed all of them like this. That their bodies were there and Shampoo's wasn't, made Mousse's panic double. What had happened here? If Shampoo was dead, why wasn't she among the bodies. And if she wasn't, then where was she?  
  
He sensed another door at the far side of the room and felt an overwhelming urge to leave the sickening stench of death behind him as much as to continue his search for Shampoo. Throwing open the door, he felt a rush of briny air, though everything was still pitch black. Nonetheless, he rushed out into the darkness, not giving himself enough time to use his newfound sense to adjust to the new area. He made it no more than three steps before he tripped on something and was sent sprawling across what felt like concrete.   
  
As he slowly heaved himself back to his feet, his body still aching from pain, his senses seemed to come under attack. A cool wind cut across his face, carrying with it the smell of fish, brine, and a variety of airborne pollutants. The sound of water splashing against the shore and docks, and of ships blaring their horns, resounded throughout his ears. His new sense stretched outward, forming a narrow street that had multiple large buildings close together. There could be no doubt about it; he was outside. But why was everything still pitch black? Even if there had been some sort of power outage that would have doused the lights, there was a full moon out tonight. No matter how much cloud cover there was, he should have been able to see something. It was almost as if...he...was...  
  
"NOOOO!!!" he raged to the skies above, thoughts of Shampoo momentarily purged from his mind by the anger that now overwhelmed him in his loss. No longer would anyone be able to call him only a half-blind fool now.  
  
  
Two months ago:  
  
Akane Tendo cursed her luck again. She'd rather have had none at all instead of the bad that had seemingly marked her entire life. Why didn't anything ever work out right? It seemed she was never going to get a break.  
  
Her mind turned back to when she was a little girl. The first terrible thing had been her mother's death. Ever since that day there had been a hole in Akane's heart that still ached, even after all of that time. Then, six years later, it was the time she herself had nearly met the same fate as her mother, almost dying when she ended up run down by a drunken driver. Luckily, she had survived and had suffered only minor injuries, save for her right leg. The ligaments in it had ended up injured so badly that it had never healed right and she needed a cane to get anywhere. It was especially bad since the injury had forced her to all but give up practicing one of the few things she had a passion for: martial arts. She could still perform some of the simpler katas, but that was all. It was small wonder that she had gone from a bright, cheerful girl to one that had a dour outlook on life. At least that was true until a year ago, when Doctor Tofu had hired her on as his nurse.   
  
That alone was cause enough to bring joy back into her life. He was the ideal man, thoughtful and caring without asking anything in return. She knew deep in her heart that he would never care if she had a bad leg or not; he would judge her on who she was. It was small wonder that she had fallen for him, and working as his assistant gave her the perfect excuse to be around him. All she had to do now was try to help him get over the silly crush he had on Kasumi. Akane was convinced her sister really wasn't interested in the doctor at all (as hard as that was for Akane to believe) and that they were completely wrong for one another. Akane, on the other hand, would be the perfect match for him. At least once she was a little older and more mature. Then he would notice her.   
  
Then it all seemed to come together last week. The doctor had been invited to a conference in Norway, and he had thought it would be a good idea for Akane to go along, the trip being a valuable learning experience for her. She practically fainted on the spot and began to wonder if he was starting to become interested in her. After all, it was around the time Kasumi turned sixteen that his glasses began fogging up around her and he acted like a complete fool. During the entire trip she watched him intently for any sign of fogging, but they never did. Without that sign of encouragement, she lacked the nerve to try anything else.   
  
And then came what was perhaps the absolute worst thing that had ever happened in her entire life. It was as the doctor was at the conference that Akane decided to catch some fresh air and check out the Norwegian countryside. She took a bus to a nearby town and began a little jaunt so she could check out the sights. At least that was the plan. It was as she was enjoying the foreign landscape that a feature of Norwegian countrysides made its appearance known, much to her surprise.  
  
The statues out there speak and think that they are aliens.   
  
At least that was what it seemed like when she ran into several giant statues that claimed they were the 'Stone Men of Saturn' and had come to conquer the Earth. Akane, having better sense that to argue with the local masonry, chose to flee as quickly as she could on her bad leg.   
  
Midway through her flight she lost her cane and was forced to practically crawl until she found a cave that was too small to allow the statues to enter.   
  
After cursing her luck once again, and ascertaining the statues were not following her, she examined the rest of the cave. Towards the back, she discovered a large stick that appeared to be large enough to operate as a makeshift cane. She picked it up and tapped it on the ground, intending to do nothing more than see how sturdy it was.  
  
Once again she ended up with a whole lot more than she bargained for.   
  
As the cane hit the ground, there was a flash of light and suddenly Akane found herself transformed. Where once there stood a short, black-haired, somewhat cute, Japanese girl with a makeshift walking stick, there now stood a ravishing, , statuesque, powerfully-built, blonde Norse goddess with an uru hammer, capable of summoning forth the power of the storms themselves. She found that even her clothing had changed into garb more fitting for both her new status and the sudden change in personality she felt as she understood she was now Thor, Goddess of Thunder.  
  
And the first order of business was to teach deluded pieces of walking rubble that it was poor manners to terrorize young, innocent foreigners that wandered the countryside, minding their own business.  
  
  
Two weeks ago:  
  
Humidity beyond belief assailed Kodachi Kunou as she traveled through the middle of the Cambodian jungle in an open air jeep. Not that the slow speed at which they were traveling seemed to help in the slightest. She silently cursed her father for sending her on this ludicrous assignment of checking on one of their overseas munitions plants. He could have sent any of his subordinates to look it over, but he had chosen her instead. The old pineapple-deranged fool might have claimed it was because he trusted her more than the others, but the truth was he did not want the precious 'Black Rose' of Kunou Enterprises to go to the gala that the head of Shinohara Heavy Industries was throwing. A party that she had personally been invited to by that nice Asuma Shinohara. It was just another way of keeping his prime inventor, and resident genius, in the fields of munitions and pineapples on a tight leash. That she also happened to be his only daughter meant nothing to the man.   
  
At first, she had thought it was merely coincidence that, at seemingly every time there was a social event she was invited to, something came up that would prevent her from attending. However, it was proved otherwise as it happened every single time and it became obvious the tasks were by design, not by chance. Likewise, the same thing happened to any employee (the only people she had contact with since her father kept her too busy to do anything outside of work) that showed interest in her or she in them. Almost as soon as it happened, they would be transferred to another division far away from her. There was a lot of movement in the company, but after a year and a half that pattern became all too clear as well. The most recent event was merely a continuation she had come to expect now.   
  
Her father's Black Rose could not be allowed to bloom, for fear she might not invent the next 'revolutionary weapons design that would catapult Kunou Enterprises to the forefront of the weapon's market.' That meant Kodachi Kunou would simply remain enslaved to her weapons for the rest of her life.  
  
Not so for her elder brother. The damnable playboy did nothing more than pretend at being a samurai and tried to woo every lady in his sight. The ridiculous popinjay could have a life because he was useless, whereas Kodachi suffered because she was effective. What bitter irony. Sometimes Kodachi wished she had not been born with the intellect and drive to be the best. If only she could have something in her life to help give her meaning. If only she could meet a man, any man-"  
  
The rest of her thoughts ended abruptly as the front of her jeep detonated in a fireball and a tremendous pain seemed to burst from her chest.  
  
  
Kodachi awakened to the smell of cigar smoke and sweat. Her eyes had barely fluttered open when a voice boomed out, "So, my little tool is awake."  
  
She turned her head and saw that a tall, overweight man in worn army fatigues was standing over her. Perhaps leering was a better term. As she sat up, she discovered why that was. Aside from some thick bandages around her chest, she was naked. Instinctively she tried covering herself up with her hands.  
  
"No need to be scared, girl," the fat man bellowed in laughter. "No one here will lay a hand on you, at least not so long as you can prove yourself useful to me in other ways."  
  
Kodachi reluctantly took her eyes of the fat man to take in her surroundings. She was lying on a plain cot, inside a simple wooden building of some kind. All of the floors, walls, ceiling, and tables were composed of what she took to be rather cheap lumber. In spite of the primitive nature of the room, there was a surprising amount of tools and fairly sophisticated equipment spread out around the room.   
  
As she turned back, she now noticed an elderly man, dressed in a plain white smock that reached his knees, standing several feet behind the fat man. His head was held low, the opposite of the arrogant demeanor the larger man possessed. The elderly man's gaze was a look of concern. An errant thought flashed through her mind. A realization that she rarely saw such concern on her own father's face. Another bitter irony that a complete stranger demonstrated more care for her than her own flesh and blood. There was also one other thing. The older man seemed vaguely familiar somehow, but she could not quite place the face on him. She found herself hoping he would speak, hoping that would enable her to recognize him.  
  
The fat man spoke once again as he moved closer to Kodachi. "I am now your master, Wong Chu. From now on you will do as I say and obey my every whim. If you do not, I will allow you to die from your injury." He indicated the area of Kodachi's chest that was bandaged.   
  
Her hand went from covering up her privates to the wound. "What do you mean, 'allow me to die'?"  
  
"I mean exactly what I say," Chu snickered. "There is a piece of shrapnel embedded in your chest, next to your heart. My surgeons assured me that if the piece is not removed, you will die." Chu moved closer still to Kodachi, until she could smell the stink of the man's sweaty body. "When I first captured you, I was going to let my men use you for a while, but Professor Yinsen informed me you were a weapons inventor of some repute. Naturally, I didn't believe him, but then he showed me a picture of you in one of his journals. It's hard to believe that a pretty young thing such as yourself could make such nasty weapons."  
  
He gave her body another appraising look, but she did not even notice. Her attention was riveted on the elderly man behind Chu. "You are Professor Yinsen?"  
  
The elderly man bowed before almost ashamedly saying, "Yes."  
  
"I've read some of your theories on robotics. They're incredible," Kodachi said in awe.   
  
Chu nodded approvingly. "Good. It appears you will be getting along just fine." He leaned over Kodachi and grabbed her by the jaw, forcing her to look at him. "Here is what you will do. You and Yinsen are going to create weapons for me. New and powerful weapons that will make me the most powerful man in this part of the world. You will have to move quickly, though, for my surgeons say that you most likely have no more than a week at most. I will not treat you until you have made me a weapon I can use. Do that and I shall give you your life. Do you understand?"  
  
With her jaw held firmly in his grasp, she could do little more than grunt an assent.   
  
Chu smiled at that and release his hold. "Good. You will begin your work immediately. You have no time to waste." Chu gave her body one last leer before exiting the room, shutting the door behind him. A second later, Kodachi heard the sound of feet walking away, then silence.   
  
She returned her attention to the professor. While she had watched Chu leave, Yinsen had grabbed another smock, similar to his, and offered it to her. She gratefully accepted. As she began to dress, Yinsen began to speak. "I'm sorry I told Chu who you were, but considering the alternative, I had little choice."  
  
Kodachi nodded her head in agreement, trying hard not to think about what might have happened had Yinsen not recognized her. "Why are you working for this monster?"  
  
Yinsen shot an evil glare towards the door Chu had departed through earlier. "Chu found out I was visiting relatives in Cambodia. He kidnapped me, then faked my death, leaving no one in the world the wiser. Since then he's threatened to kill me if I don't create some kind of weapon for him." Yinsen spat on the ground. "That fat bastard fancies himself a warlord instead of the terrorist that he is. It was one of his landmines that nearly killed you."  
  
Yinsen's face took on a sad look. "He's lied to you. I overheard him talking with his doctors. They can't save you. The shrapnel is in too deep. They'll kill you if they try to take it out."  
  
Kodachi's world seemed to fall around her. Was this how she was going to die? In some backwater jungle at the hands of a terrorist with delusions of grandeur? She had not even kissed a man. How could she die so unfulfilled, without ever truly having lived?  
  
"All may not be lost." Professor Yinsen went over to one of the workbenches and picked up what appeared to be a metal chestplate of gray metal. "In order to stall for time, I've been designing a suit of powered armor for Chu. Of course I had no intention of finishing it; I was simply waiting for an opportunity to escape. But now things have changed. If you are half as brilliant as I've heard, together we might be able to not only finish this quickly, but modify it so that it can keep that piece of shrapnel from moving closer to your heart. Then you can use the armor to get us out of here. An old man like me would probably die in the attempt, but someone as young as yourself using the armor might give us a chance. What do you say?"  
  
Kodachi could do nothing but nod her head in agreement. He was correct. It as the only chance they had. She began to look over the equipment that Chu had left in the room.  
  
  
Thirteen days ago:  
  
Dr. Robert Bruce Banner ignored the sounds of the military personnel around him as he looked out of the observation slit of the bunker he was in. After years of hard work, his greatest achievement, the Gamma Bomb, stood poised and was ready to be tested. It stood two miles away and towered above the New Mexican sands like a finger pointing to the heavens above.   
  
As he stood there, looking through a pair of binoculars and basking in the splendor of his wonderful creation, a movement caught his eye.   
  
  
General Thaddeus 'Thunderbolt' Ross was watching everyone scurry about when Banner's panicked shout nearly caused him to go for his sidearm. "What the hell's the wrong with you, Banner?!" he grumbled.   
  
"There's a young man out...wait a minute. I could have sworn I saw a young man out there a moment ago."  
  
"Where?" Thunderbolt Ross grabbed a pair of binoculars and stood next to Banner, staring out the observation port alongside him. All it would take was one intruder to slip past the guards and ruin everything.   
  
"About thirty meters north of the bomb," Banner said.  
  
Ross carefully scanned the area. "The only thing I see is a little black piglet with a stupid-looking bandanna tied around it's neck."  
  
"Same here," Banner admitted sheepishly. "It must have been a mirage or something."  
  
General Ross mumbled something about 'milksop scientists' and went back to preparing for the test once more.  
  
  
Ryouga the piglet cursed every god he knew at his luck. Not only did he get on the wrong boat, somehow ending up in America instead of Japan, but he was now lost in some desert. And here he had thought it was just a really huge beach for a pretty long while. To make matters worse, he had managed to stumble into a puddle that was in the middle of said desert. Probably the only blasted puddle too. He cursed his luck again.  
  
There was one person responsible for the mess he was in and the hell he had gone through, and it was time to loudly proclaim to the world who that was, even if it would only sound like the squeals of a normal pig.  
  
"Ranma! This is all your fau-"  
  
And then the world became green.  
  
  
"Well, the test seems to have been a complete success." Banner offered his hand to Ross, praying he would accept it. He really wanted to get on the general's good side, what with him wanting to date Betty, the general's daughter. He felt a surge of relief run through him as Ross grudgingly shook his hand, though the older man seemed to squeeze it harder than he had to.   
  
"Not bad, for a scientist," Ross admitted.   
  
Banner's half-formed response died on his lips as a whistle made its presence known. It rose in pitch by the second and almost seemed to come from directly overhead. Just as Banner was about to ask Ross if he knew what it was, there was an explosion from overhead. He caught only a brief glance of something knocking a large hole in the ceiling, tearing through the four feet of concrete and landing in the middle of the room, buckling the metal floor beneath him. As the dust from its explosive entry settled, Banner managed to make out the intruder. It was a green piglet, nearly two feet in length and a foot wide, with huge popping veins and muscles. The piglet looked over the room once, snorted, then gave a mighty, "BWEEEEE!" and left the room via jumping through the roof once again, exiting through a different part of the ceiling.   
  
"What in the hell was that?!" Ross said, his eyes just staring at the ruin the ceiling of the bunker had become.   
  
"It was either an animal that was irradiated by Gamma radiation released by the bomb, made into an incredibly and strong monstrosity...or a really weird mass hallucination," Banner answered dazedly.  
  
Ross just continued staring at the hole in the ceiling. After a moment, a look of consideration crossed his features. "Banner, I'm going to need your help."  
  
"You are?" Banner said, bewildered.   
  
"Yes, son." He clapped his hand on Banner's shoulder in a rare sign of approval. "I need you to find me a way to track down that creature. We can't have a little time bomb like that wandering around, destroying everything in sight. We'll alert the base and prepare to destroy that incredible, ummm?"  
  
"Bwee, sir?" Banner offered.  
  
Ross nodded in approval. "I suppose that's as good of a name as any. From now on the target will be known as the Bwee until we come up with a better name. Now get cracking on that device, Banner. I have an army to mobilize."  
  
  
Seven days ago:  
  
Kodachi Kunou stared through the metal slits of her helmet at the conflagration that served as a funeral pyre for Wong Chu. 'May the fat bastard burn in hell for an eternity,' Kodachi thought to herself. He deserved it for all of the evils that he had visited on so many people, herself and Professor Yinsen among them.   
  
The poor Professor. With the adrenaline high of the life and death struggle with Chu and his forces behind her, grief washed over her in a wave. Professor Yinsen had given his life for her, and all she could do in return was weep.   
  
It was only a week ago that Chu had left the two of them alone in the lab, allowing them the privacy they needed to save Kodachi's life and liberate them from their prison. They had worked nonstop from that moment to modify and complete the suit of armor that would be Kodachi's salvation. Combined, their skills were nearly unstoppable, and Kodachi marveled at the Professor's genius. The modifications to the chestplate was the most difficult part. Altering it so it would keep the shrapnel from piercing Kodachi's heart took every ounce of skill they had, but after five days, they had been fairly certain it would work.   
  
After they had completed that all-important piece, it was time to incorporate the weapon systems. After all, it would have been rude of them to enjoy Wong Chu's 'hospitality' and not do as he asked. Of course, the weapon that they were building was going to be used against him, but the fat man hadn't been specific as to what the weapon they were building was supposed to do. The only time Chu would see the suit was when it would be used to stomp his pudgy face in.  
  
In the short amount of time they had remaining, Kodachi loaded the armor with every weapon she could make and incorporate. Most of them were far more basic then what she could have done with the proper labs of Kunou Enterprises at her fingertips, but she made an impressive array with the basic materials she had on hand.   
  
It was as they were finishing the chest laser attachment that Kodachi felt the stabbing pain in her chest, threatening to cause her to pass out. Realizing her time was up, she quickly donned the armor, the weight of the powerless hunk of metal making it feel as though she were in a tight, gun metal gray coffin. It fell to Professor Yinsen to hook up the armor to the generators to power it up. Once the batteries of the armor were full, the duo would then make their escape.   
  
Or that was how it was supposed to be. Instead, just as the armor was nearing its final charged state, the sound of Chu's annoying laughter announced his presence in the hallway outside. Both Kodachi and Yinsen knew there was not going to be enough time to finish the power up before Chu made it to the room, and unless there was a full charge, the armor would not be able to activate. They still needed one more minute, a minute they did not have until Yinsen took it upon himself to buy them the time she needed. He gave one last, mournful look towards the immobile Kodachi, then picked up a wrench and ran out into the hallway, shouting out obscenities about Chu and his ancestors. A moment later there was gunfire, and then silence. Kodachi cried within her armor, waiting for the power gauge to read one hundred percent.   
  
She got it just as Chu finally made it to the door. As he opened it up, he was confronted by a giant armored warrior, rising from a worktable like a spirit of vengeance.   
  
  
Kodachi came back to the present as she gazed at the dying fire once again. Chu had not made her vengeance easy, he had sent his entire troop upon her, but in the end neither he nor all of his men could keep her from avenging the death of Professor Yinsen. True, she had not planned on actually killing Chu, but it had happened all the same and she could feel no remorse for him.   
  
Now it was time for her to deal with her life and decide what to do. Once in her laboratories, she could upgrade the armor and armaments inside. Already she had thought of close to a dozen things she could do to improve it. Certainly she was going to keep the armor. Despite the grim nature of her mission, there had been a sort of ecstasy she had felt from being in the thick of battle. A feeling of a rose blooming at last, even if it was a rose of iron rather than of flesh.   
  
Oh yes, she might have had to figure out the exact details of how it was going to work, but the Iron Rose was going to stay around for a long time to come.  
  
  
Two hours ago:  
  
Another leap took the gamma-irradiated piglet another three miles and still there was nothing but an endless field of ice as far as the eye could see. It had been so certain it was going in the correct direction to find the one he sought. An image of a young man filled the piglet's thoughts. The boy had hurt him, and the piglet would make him pay. But first, it had to find its way out of Greenland.   
  
The green one crouched back slightly, preparing to jump and give off a mighty 'Bwee!', when a man, encased in purple and green armor, suddenly appeared hovering directly over the animal.   
  
As the piglet stared at him in surprise, a pitcher, filled with a steaming substance, suddenly appeared in the man's hand. He poured the contents over the piglet's head, triggering its other, Jusenkyou related transformation. No longer was there a powerhouse of porcine might before him. Now there stood a towering, green, nine foot tall man that was a mass of muscle.  
  
Beneath the armored figure's blue faceplate, an eyebrow raised in puzzlement. The green goliath now sported a yellow and black bandanna, even as it had as a piglet, but it also had on a pair of purple pants that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. The armored figure had not realized that occurred during the transformation from animal to man, and a part of him wondered where the pants came from. Then again, magic had never been a field he pretended to understand in the slightest. And it did not matter, at the moment.  
  
He took a moment to admire the impressive, and very confused, emerald giant before him. "My, you are an 'Incredible Hulk.' What an appropriate name."  
  
The giant looked at him in surprise. "Hulk? Is that Hulk's name? Hulk could not remember name." The 'Hulk' considered his new appellation. He rather liked it.   
  
"I'm so very glad," the armored man said as he continued hovering just outside of the Hulk's reach. He made a mental note to check the original timeline to see how the Hulk was really supposed to have gotten his name. To the armored man's knowledge, the Hulk had always called himself that, never having a period where he did not know his own name.   
  
"How would you like me to help you?" the man asked.   
  
The Hulk seemed surprised once again. "Why funny, floating man want to help Hulk?"  
  
"Because of a common enemy we share," the man said in a soothing voice.   
  
"Enemy?" The Hulk scratched his head. He had just been thinking about an enemy. What was the name again?  
  
The armored man held out on open hand. From the palm burst out a hologram of a man, dressed in a tight fitting outfit of red and white, with a rising sun across the chest that reached all the way around to the back of his outfit. The armored man began to wonder if the Hulk was having a problem with gamma irradiated lice as he scratched his head once more.   
  
"Enemy look different from what Hulk remember."  
  
The man sighed. "That's because he's wearing a mask."  
  
"Oh," the Hulk said, then asked, "Why?"  
  
"Because he's a superhero. If he went around showing his face off, everyone would know who he is."  
  
"How funny floating man know that Hulk's enemy?" The Hulk had thought that was rather a good point.   
  
"Because I've seen him without his mask," the man sighed in exasperation.   
  
"Then why Hulk's enemy still wear mask if it not work and you know who he is?"  
  
The man refrained from opening fire on the Hulk. He needed a pawn, not a senseless battle. "Because he thinks you are stupid and won't see through his disguise."  
  
"WHAT?!" the Hulk bellowed out in rage. "Hulk not stupid!"  
  
"That's what your enemy said about you." The faceplate failed to hide the man's blossoming smile.   
  
"Enemy have no right calling Hulk stupid! Hulk smash!"  
  
"Good boy. No there won't be any need for you to jump around all over the world to find him. I'll send you right over." With a gesture the man waved a hand over the Hulk, activating the teleport system his armor was currently linked to. The Hulk vanished in an instant, leaving only a few tingling lights as an after effect of the teleportation. The armored figure wondered how one of his principle nemesises would fare meeting an enraged Hulk two weeks before he was supposed to, and with no Avengers to back him up.   
  
The plan was now in motion. Without a leader, the Avengers would never form, and the incident they were responsible for would never happen. And all in the next two hours.  
  
Kang the Conqueror's laugh resounded across the glacier, heard by no one but himself.   
  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Finally had enough time to sit down and finish this thing. Real Life cutting into writing time, don't you know. Right now I'm looking for prereaders. So if you're interested, just  
let me know.   
  
Yes, I know Daredevil was never an Avenger (although he was offered wayyyyy back in issue number 110 or so) Mousse was too perfect for the role, as well as for some other reasons. It just fit in too nicely.   
  
I have a list of villains and their anime identities figured out, but I'm open to suggestions (I received several brilliant ones on Newberry chat a few weeks ago) so I'm keeping an open mind. Go ahead and let me know if you have any ideas. It should be noted that I am also drawing upon anime characters outside of the Ranma 1/2 continuity as well, but most of them will come from the series.  
  
Special Thanks to   
  
Bloodblade  
Gary Kleppe  
Jurai-Knight  
Ryouclio  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	2. Three Beauties and a Beast

Avenging  
Chapter 2  
Three Beauties and a Beast  
  
  
An Avengers/Ranma 1/2 fusion  
  
Standard Disclaimer:   
I don't own the Ranma 1/2 characters or the Avengers.  
All C+C appreciated. You can contact me at  
sommer@3rdm.net  
  
Avenging is being kept at:  
  
Doug's Archive at:  
http://www.theisp.net/pages/catman/  
  
Slashley's page at  
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Shrine/5747/  
  
And my own page at:  
http://angcobra.jumpfun.com/dbsommer.html  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
  
And the rain came falling down.  
  
To the inhabitants of Nerima, it seemed the rains never stopped for very long. It would rain at least once every third day, and the citizens still talked about the vicious thunderstorm that had appeared out of nowhere two months ago and nearly flooded the district. Only recently had people stopped looking up to the skies with trepidation when the rains came. Currently, no tension was present as a light rain began to fall, bringing in temporary relief from the late summer heat wave that had just rolled in.   
  
The two newcomers to Nerima were unaware of the unusual weather conditions of late. What they did notice, as they walked down the street, was that they were receiving more than their fair share of odd stares. Of course that was probably the normal reaction to a teenage boy that used a red, white, and blue shield with a white star in the middle as an umbrella while scolding a rather large panda behind him.   
  
"...and it's all your fault, Pop!" Ranma said to the large soaking furball that trailed behind him.  
  
A sign appeared in the panda's hand. *It's not my fault you were clumsy and fell into that cursed spring.*  
  
"What do you mean it's not your fault?! You're the one that knocked me into it!" the boy shouted back.   
  
*A superhero martial artist must be prepared for anything at all times.*  
  
"There ain't nobody in the world that can be prepared for their old man turning into a panda and attacking them!" Ranma snapped back. The argument seemed to die after that, and the two relaxed just a little more. They only made their way a little further down the street until Ranma spoke again. "Where are we going anyway, Pop?"  
  
*We're...uh...going to see an old friend of mine.*  
  
Ranma tensed up. It didn't take long to learn the little nuances that panda sign language gave away on a 'speaker's' feelings, especially when there were hesitations like the one his father had just demonstrated. Something really bad was going on. "Why?"  
  
*No reason in particular. You're just going to be engaged to one of his daughters*  
  
"WHAT?!" Ranma bellowed, causing everyone to stop what they were doing and stare at him. "Exactly when were you planning on telling me of this?!"  
  
*When we got there. That would give you plenty of time to adjust to your new sit...* The panda suddenly realized he was talking to Ranma's back as the boy turned around and began walking in the direction that they had originally come.   
  
A 'Garumph,' caught Ranma's attention and he turned around to confront the panda once again. He knew what his father was going to say, and headed him off. "To hell with this fiancee stuff! I'm going to do something important, like going back to China and getting a cure."  
  
*No you're not. You're going to marry a Tendou and become a superhero.*  
  
"I ain't gonna be a superhero, you stupid old man," Ranma growled once again, nearly moving the shield too far to the right and allowing rain to fall upon him.  
  
The panda gave him an offended look. *How can you say that after what I went through to get that costume and shield for you?*  
  
"Whaddya mean what you went through?" Ranma spluttered out. "You won that stupid shield in a card game from that American scientist. You were pissed as hell until you found out it was indestructible. And as to the costume, well, I don't think mom would be too happy about what you went through to get it."  
  
*W...what do you mean?*  
  
Ranma gave him an evil glare. "We didn't have no money to buy the dumb costume, and I saw how that seamstress was looking at you. How did you pay for something that elaborate, huh, Pop?"  
  
The panda looked nervously back and forth, sweat joining the rain that had already dampened his fur. *It was for the cause. Besides, I didn't let things go far and I never had any intention of doing the things she suggested. Why do you think we left in the dead of night right after we got it? Your mother is the only one for me, so don't tell her, please.*  
  
"So you swindled her, too?" If he hadn't been using the shield to keep the rain off himself, he would have held his hands up in disgust.  
  
*It was the only way to make you a paragon of virtue for this nation; a symbol which would represent the common will of the people. Besides, your mother made us promise we'd use that super-soldier serum to help every...where are you going?*  
  
Ranma looked over his shoulder at the panda he had left behind once again. "I'm a guy, not a paragon. I'm outta here." He walked away again.  
  
This time the panda did nothing to catch Ranma's attention. Instead, he went over to a nearby stop sign, ripped it out of the ground, and tiptoed quickly to catch up to the boy. Seeing the shield still poised above Ranma, the panda drew back the sign and targeted the back of the boy's head.  
  
The blow never arrived. With one fluid motion, Ranma dropped the shield from its position above his head, looped his arm through the straps, and blocked the attempted blow from behind. "You rotten old man!" Ranma shouted along with several other epithets. "I oughta just..." he trailed off as he realized that without the shield to keep the rain from hitting him, his curse had activated.  
  
The now fiery-haired redhead seethed. "Now look at what you made me do!"  
  
The panda switched from the stop sign to one of his own. *This is just a minor inconvenience on the path of becoming a true martial-artist superhero. And I'm sure Tendou raised open-minded daughters.*  
  
Ranma-chan trembled in fury. "If you want a damn superhero so much, you be one! Here's the shield!" Ranma-chan leaped back several meters and threw the shield like a discus, the edge of it slamming into the panda's face. Even as the target was knocked backwards into unconsciousness, the shield took a high arc into midair and back towards Ranma-chan. Her hand was a blur as she snatched it before it could hit the ground. A moment later, a smile broke out across her face as she admired her handiwork, noting that the rain had finally stopped. "Time to get some hot water," she said as she walked away.   
  
  
"It was nice seeing you again, Mrs. Godai."  
  
"It's always a pleasure, Akane."  
  
Akane handed the older woman several forms to sign, then watched her walk out the door of Dr. Tofu's offices. She was always a nice enough patient, although her husband was something of a wimp.   
  
Akane looked to see that Kyoko was holding open the door to allow a delivery man to wheel past her with several crates on a dolly. Akane rolled her eyes as the man thanked the older woman, then turned his attention Akane.   
  
"Kawada, I thought you said the stuff we got three days ago was the last shipment," Akane said.  
  
The man in the blue coveralls shrugged. "We found these towards the back of one of the storage rooms. One of the new guys must have misplaced it there. Sorry, Akane."  
  
Akane gave another sigh and held out her hand to accept the form for the latest delivery. They had received so many shipments of crates of equipment over the last two weeks that she was now on a first name basis with two of the delivery men.   
  
All of the crates were from some bio-chemist in the United States that Tofu had met when he was a foreign exchange student. Apparently, the two had hit it off so well that they had remained in touch over the ensuing years. Recently, though, the American had died suddenly and apparently left all of the lab equipment to Tofu. When Akane had tried to find out what sort of equipment it was, Tofu had uncharacteristically become evasive and gave a vague answer to her. That he had not trusted her enough to tell, hurt, but she ignored the pain and continued to do the best work she could. He would trust her enough someday. It would just take time.   
  
As she finished signing, she shouted out, "Dr. Tofu! Some more crates of equipment for you!"  
  
Tofu emerged from his office to examine the delivery himself. Upon seeing it, he gave a broad smile. "I thought there were still a few pieces missing." He thanked Akane and escorted Kawada to the back. Currently, all of the equipment was being set up in an addition Tofu had built onto the back of his offices, the whole thing having been completed less than a month before the first crates came. The addition itself was now locked up tight, Tofu denying anyone entry, even Akane.   
  
Akane watched as they unloaded the crates in front of the addition, then followed Tofu as he escorted Kawada out. Once the man had left, the doctor asked Akane if there were any more appointments. After she informed him that the last two had canceled, he gave her the rest of the day off, telling her he would see her tomorrow after school. Her instincts began caterwauling for her to find some excuse to stay, but her nerve gave out so she simply closed up the office, grabbed her cane, and headed out.   
  
Not having any desire to return home, she elected instead to go out to a nearby park and try to enjoy the weather as best as she could, given her mood. At least the weather was pleasant, though she noted that there were few people outside, apparently not enjoying the light rainfall as she did. She would have preferred a nice thunderstorm to cheer her up, but changing and summoning one would have been a bad idea. Almost two months ago, after she had first returned to Japan from her Norwegian journey, she summoned a tremendous thunderstorm. Unfortunately, she was still out of practice with her god-like abilities and conjured one that was too big, causing a great deal of havoc throughout the surrounding districts. Since then, she practiced until her control was perfect, and would only occasionally summon light rainfalls when she felt really down. As she looked up to the sky, she noted that it appeared the clouds were breaking up, so she vowed to enjoy the weather for as long as she could.   
  
  
With a flip of a switch the bright red glow that the lasers had been giving off vanished, allowing the normal white glow of the phosphorescent light to illuminate the test chamber again. A smile broke out across Kodachi Kunou's face as she removed her protective goggles and ran a surface analysis of the 'Iron Rose Mark II' armor. There was only a light bit of scoring that was all but unnoticeable on the night black armor, and that was it as far as damage was concerned. She was now convinced that her new toy was resilient enough to take on any weapon within Kunou Industries' impressive arsenal and still remain functional.   
  
Upon her return to Japan, she had upgraded the armor to its current 'Mark II' designation. The outward appearance had changed little, the only truly noticeable change coming from the now midnight-black coloring of the armor from the gun-metal gray it had originally been. But as to the actual performance of the armor itself, that was different. The improvements she had made in both the equipment and materials had made the armor lighter, even with the dozen new weapons systems she had incorporated into her and Yinsen's masterpiece. The only problem she saw with it was that, in spite of the slight trimming down in size, it was still incredibly huge and bulky. It was so large she doubted anyone would even realize it was actually a woman inside the armor, not that she wanted the world to know it was Kodachi Kunou behind the mask of the Iron Rose. Still, she found herself increasingly disliking the size. She had managed to trim down her life-saving chestplate so that it would not be noticeable behind loose fitting blouses. She could do the same to her armor. There were some ideas she had on radically streamlining it, although she would sacrifice some of the protection the additional armor plating gave her. However, the increase in maneuverability should have made up for that.   
  
There were also some more immediate problems to be concerned about. During her long journey back home, she had been concerned with exactly what to do about the armor. It was indeed powerful, more so than anything Kodachi had produced over the years. Once her father got his hands on it, he would start mass production of it within a year. But Kodachi was beginning to consider that it might be too powerful. Truly it was a marvel of engineering, the creation of two minds that complemented each other to perfection, but it had only been made under duress and as a matter of survival. Yinsen himself was a man of peace, and he certainly would never have wanted his creation to be shipped out over the open market as a tool of mass destruction.   
  
There was another consideration as well. Kodachi liked using the armor. It made her feel powerful, as though at long last the Black Rose was being allowed to bloom. How ironic that she only felt that way within the confines of a metal shell. Once her father found out, she would be forced to relinquish the armor and the rose would wither and die once more. So she came up with a plan. It was not the best of ones perhaps, but it was what she had come up with given her limited options. She would keep the knowledge of the armor to herself alone, working on it in her private labs while claiming to work on other projects. The only times she would use it would be when no one would notice her absence, and even then she would take steps to make certain no one would make the connection between her and the Iron Rose. Perhaps employing one of the Life Model Decoy's Kunou Industries made for S.H.I.E.L.D., in her image, would be in order.   
  
It had seemed like a workable plan at the time, but it was one which had temporarily become unnecessary. When she had finally returned home, she learned that her father had gone missing. From what others had told her, he had traveled to Hawaii to look over some of the company's pineapple holdings. On the return trip, his private jet disappeared without a trace somewhere over the Pacific. Despite a widespread investigation, nothing had turned up, not even wreckage to indicate the plane had gone down.   
  
Kodachi wasn't certain what to feel. He was her father, and she knew she should have been worried sick over his fate, yet some part of her was glad that she was at least temporarily freed from the bonds he had placed on her. Part of her was sickened by that as well. Yet another wonderful irony that seemed to have become a regular part of her life.   
  
In her father's absence, Tatewaki had been left in charge of things, not that he was the least bit qualified. However, he was the apple (or in this case, pineapple), of her father's eye. There was nothing Tatewaki Kunou could do wrong, and he would be left with everything, no matter how quickly he would lead the company into the ground.   
  
But Kunou too ended up doing something unexpected. Apparently, after only being in charge for a week, he decided to go off somewhere alone without notifying anyone and had not been heard from since. Between her own mishap, which was now followed on its heels of the rest of her family's disappearances, Kodachi began to suspect that something more than coincidence that was involved with all of the recent events.   
  
She tried considering every possibility, including who would gain something from the disappearance of all the members of the Kunou family, and she came up with an idea. She had two of the more trusted members of the board look into the public stocks to see if anyone had recently made any large purchases of Kunou Industries shares. If there had been no Kunous present, the company would have been ripe for a hostile takeover.   
  
As she turned away from the testing chamber's control panel, she felt a headache coming on. She was ill-tempered (though capable) for the maneuverings of the business world, preferring the battlefield of the lab instead. What she needed was the feeling of freedom that could be gained only by the use of her new toy. It took her only a few minutes to place the armor in an overly large briefcase and order a car brought to her. With that completed, it was a quick drive to a burned out warehouse that was located far from the public's prying eyes. Once there, she quickly donned the armor and took off.   
  
The moment she was in the air, her problems seemed to fall away behind her, leaving only a giddiness in her. Everything seemed so alive. The clouds were breaking up, making everything bright and new. The buildings looked majestic. The masses below appeared happy.   
  
*CLANG*   
  
The birds were being knocked out of the sky as she flew too fast for the airborne creatures to react. She made a mental note to incorporate some kind of device that would send out a sub-sonic pulse to frighten the birds away. Still, all seemed right in the world. At least for now. In fact, she felt so delighted that she could not help but laugh.  
  
"OHHOHOHOHOHOHO!!!"  
  
Laughing like that made her feel without a care in the world. All she needed now to achieve true euphoria was to meet a good-looking man. Someone that could show her what it meant to be a woman.   
  
  
The blinding flash of being teleported disoriented the Hulk for several moments. He was going to ask the purple and green armored man why he had blinded him when his vision began to clear. Shapes swam into focus. He now found himself not on the endless expanse of a white glacier, but in the middle of a busy street with tall buildings on each side. People were everywhere, surrounding him on all sides and staring. A portion of his mind informed him that the crowds and buildings were familiar. It took him a moment to remember why that was.   
  
The Hulk was home.   
  
It was just as he was about to shout out in joy that a nearby woman pointed in his direction and shouted, "M...M...Monster!"  
  
The Hulk spun around. "Where? Where monster? Hulk will smash monster."  
  
The woman's scream seemed to snap everyone out of their stupor as more shouts of 'monster' were heard echoing throughout the crowd and a mad panic ensued. The Hulk tried to look though the mob of humanity to spot the monster everyone was fleeing in terror from, but his efforts were in vain as he failed to spot it, even after the street began to empty out.   
  
That did not matter to him. He would smash the monster and protect all of the people around him. All he had to do was locate and smash it. As he began his intensive search, he took no notice of the news helicopter above him.  
  
  
Ranma congratulated himself as he emerged from the ladies restroom undetected. It just figured that the mens restroom would have been closed for repairs. Going in as a girl was embarrassing enough, but if he had been caught coming out of there he would have died from embarrassment.   
  
He passed by the large display window of an appliance store. It was as he was using the faint reflection from the glass to make certain his hair wasn't messed up from the water he had dumped over it, that he heard the news report of an emergency. He watched carefully as the reporter loudly described a 'giant rampaging monster' that was terrorizing the districts inhabitants and devouring people's pets in a mad 'orgy of destruction.' To Ranma, the video seemed to show the creature was simply wandering around, but who knew what chaos it had already caused? It didn't matter. It was his duty as a martial artist to help others, and he damn well wasn't going to do it in a stupid costume either.  
  
Besides, from the look of the bruiser, Ranma was probably the only one that was tough enough to stop it.   
  
  
Yoshi Tanaka's grip tightened on his rifle as he watched the green monster approach the makeshift barricade he and his squad had set up. When he had first gotten the call for a full mobilization of all of the riot control squads, complete with maximum armaments, he had feared some kind of uprising. When he had been told they were not being activated to stop a riot, but a large green monster, he scoffed. But now, faced with the unmistakable presence of the towering monstrosity, he found his courage wavering. He had been trained to deal with crowds of people or terrorists, not giant, green beasts that looked like they could crumple a Toyota if they sneezed.   
  
He heard several of his men behind him shift nervously and begin to comment on the situation.  
  
"My god! That thing is huge!"  
  
"My god! He looks mean!"  
  
"My god! Just look at his awful fashion sense. Torn purple pants? PUH-lease! That look went out decades ago. And that silly-looking bandanna completely clashes with it!"  
  
All eyes turned to Fuji. "Do you mind?" Yoshi asked just as another man began tapping on Yoshi's shoulder.  
  
"Can we shoot him now?"  
  
"No, Ohta. We'll try to talk him down." He caught sight of Ohta's crestfallen face. "And I mean it this time."  
  
"Yes, sir," Ohta mumbled, then began quietly complaining about how he should have become a mercenary since they got to shoot their guns.   
  
Yoshi examined the approaching creature more closely. There was no way they had cuffs large enough to hold the green goliath. Maybe they could get some steel cable...  
  
His thoughts were cut off abruptly as the Hulk began to walk much more quickly towards the barricade. Maybe Ohta had the right idea in shooting first and asking questions later. No. He had to maintain his professionalism. Besides, he wasn't absolutely certain if bullets would even stop the thing.  
  
He stood up before his unit. "Men. I am going to approach the creature. Whatever you do, don't open fire."  
  
It was of course at that moment that one of the men panicked and shot. With the first round fired, thirty more guns followed suit.   
  
  
Ranma, was standing atop a nearby roof as he looked down at the scene of carnage before him. Apparently, the television reports were true. He had arrived just in time to see the Hulk crush the last of the five armored cars the police had used in some kind of makeshift barricade to corral the monster. Only now the barricade was composed of five rather large, crumpled balls of metal. The police themselves were scattered about, most of them unconscious. Ranma reevaluated the monster's threat as he watched the Hulk idly brush aside one of the remaining officers with a backhand, knocking him out despite the body armor he was wearing.  
  
"Looks like I'd better get down there and take care of that guy," Ranma said as he cracked his knuckles. Sure, the big green guy might have been able to take care of twenty policemen, but they weren't Ranma Saotome.  
  
*That's the spirit, boy,* Genma-panda 'signed.'  
  
Ranma nearly fell off the roof in surprise. "How'd you find me?"  
  
*I knew where there was danger, you'd be there, being a paragon of superheroism for this country.*  
  
Ranma swatted his panda-father in the head. "I already told ya, I ain't gonna be a superhero! I'm going to take care of this without a stupid-looking costume!"  
  
*I don't think so.* Genma-panda's eyes' gleamed with disturbing glee as he brought out his claws. This time he caught Ranma unprepared as he lunged forward and ran his arms in a slashing motion towards Ranma. He was past his son even as Ranma brought his arms up to block the attack.  
  
Ranma did a quick assessment of what damage his father had wrought with his pass. As impossible as it seemed, there appeared to be nothing wrong. "Ha! You missed, old man!"  
  
The panda turned his head to look back at his son, and smiled. *Did I?*  
  
Ranma's red and black, Chinese-style outfit fell to pieces on the ground, leaving him clad only in his underwear.  
  
*That was called the 'Clothing Meets the Maker' maneuver that I learned from a horrible person whom I hope you never have to meet. It destroys the clothing while leaving the undergarments intact. Truly it is a terrible technique. Although claws sure make it easier to use. And I have used it on occasion with your mother. Hehe-"  
  
The rest of the message was cut off as Ranma buried his fist in Genma-panda's face. "I don't need to hear nothing about your perversions, you old man!" Ranma made sure his father wasn't getting up any time soon, and rifled through his pack, looking for some other clothes. Somehow his father had shredded those too. That is, all save one item of clothing.  
  
Ranma held up the white and red uniform with the rising sun on it. It might have appeared to be the appropriate garb for a superhero to his father, but to Ranma it just looked stupid. But since it was the only thing he had to wear, it was either that or attack the monster while only in his underwear. After actually considering that for a moment, he sighed and pulled out the uniform, slipping on the mask with the eyes and lower portion of its face cut out and prepared to go into battle. If he had to wear that stupid costume, he sure did not want anyone recognizing him in it.  
  
  
The Hulk observed the final assailant go unconscious underneath the force of his blow. The men had fired on him, so obviously they were enemies of the Hulk. It was odd, since he didn't think he recognized any of them. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew it all had to be someone's else fault. What was the name again? R...Ra...Rambat? No. Ranno? No. It was Ranm-  
  
Something hard landed on top of the Hulk's head, making him lose his concentration. He turned to see the thing that had landed on top of his head now vaulting from it to land several feet in front of him. It was a man, dressed in a form-fitting white outfit with red gloves, boots, and a red, rising sun on across the middle of the body. He also bore a red, white, and blue shield.   
  
"Why clown attack Hulk?" he bellowed at his assailant. Then the shield met his face, causing him to back up a foot, as much from the shock as the momentary pain.   
  
Ranma began quivering in anger. It was all his father's fault. He knew the costume looked dumb. "I ain't no clown, you big green dope. I'm a..." He couldn't bring himself to say the words.   
  
"...ENEMY!" the Hulk shouted out, at last recognizing the costume Ranma wore. It was just like the floating man had said. The man before him was an enemy.   
  
The Hulk charged, seeking to bury a fist in the smaller youth's body. The blow connected with air as the smaller figure seemed to disappear right before his eyes. "Where did clown go?" He then felt something tap him on the back of the head.  
  
Ranma's anger made him ignore the messages of pain his fist was sending from hitting the Hulk directly in the skull. "I told you I ain't no clown!" Ranma backed away as it suddenly became obvious his blow had served only to anger his opponent.  
  
Once again the Hulk tried to hit him, and once again the blow missed as Ranma ducked and rolled between the Hulk's legs. This time he went for the backs of the Hulk's knees, managing to make his giant opponent fall backward. Ranma's then leaped up into the air landing with both feet as hard as he could in the Hulk's solar plexus, hoping to wind him. It wasn't even close as Ranma couldn't feel the monster's skin give even an inch. Worse, the Hulk rolled, forcing Ranma off-balance. He was only just starting to recover when the mighty giant regained his own footing and threw a punch towards Ranma. In an instant Ranma brought his shield up to block the blow. When he had first gotten the shield, he had tested its durability and knew it could absorb any punishment with no ill effect. He was already calculating his next move as the Hulk's fist impacted with the circle of metal...  
  
...and Ranma found himself hurled more than thirty feet away, landing solidly on his back and ending up temporarily winded.   
  
The Hulk smiled as he observed his fallen foe and decided what to do to him next. It took but a moment for him to make what he considered a small leap, only fifteen feet or so in the air, and aim his landing point right for the fallen masked man. Just as he was about to connect, Ranma rolled out of the way. The Hulk gave a dissatisfied grunt until the unexpected happened.   
  
Due to his large frame and mass, (combined with the armored car he had bounced like a giant basketball at one point) the particular part of street he landed on was worn, causing the pavement to buckle and give way, causing him to fall into the ground below.  
  
Ranma began laughing as he watched the surprised look on the Hulk's face as he fell into the earth. "What a moron! Hahahaha!"   
  
It was as Ranma was laughing that the asphalt below his feet erupted and two enormous green hands burst through it, latching onto his ankles with a firm grip. He found himself upended as the Hulk pried himself out of the street, maintaining a firm grip on Ranma's ankles. The world turned upside down for the young warrior as he found himself looking into the eyes of an enraged behemoth.   
  
"Hulk smash enemy!" he growled as his gaze tore into Ranma's eyes.  
  
Ranma gave a smile. "Hey, Bulk!"   
  
"Name is Hulk! Not Bulk!"  
  
"You want to know what the most powerful thing about you is?"  
  
The Hulk released one of Ranma's ankles and scratched his head. "What?"  
  
"Your breath." And with that Ranma brought the edge of the shield right between the Hulk's eyes. There was enough force behind the blow that it would probably have decapitated a normal man, but given the Hulk's tough hide, Ranma just hoped that it would be enough to make him release the hold.   
  
Ranma got his wish, though not quite in the way he wanted. The Hulk released him, but only by drawing back his arm and hurling him at a wall, as the Hulk himself howled in pain. It was only Ranma's superior reflexes that prevented him from ending up a colored splotch on the bricks as he twisted his body in midair and managed to use his momentum to bounce off the wall and land on his feet on the ground.  
  
"Hey, ugly!" Ranma stuck out his tongue at his opponent, only fueling the red-hot shards of anger that overwhelmed the emerald giant. With an incomprehensible roar, the Hulk charged at Ranma full-bore. Rather than try to move out of the way, Ranma stood his ground, remaining completely motionless. Had the Hulk been in control of his temper, he might have given pause as to Ranma's seeming obliviouness to the danger, but a haze of red was all that existed in his mind.   
  
The Hulk saw himself lunge over Ranma's form, arms outstretched, when Ranma's hands lashed out and he grabbed the Hulk by the wrist. Using a leverage maneuver, he redirected the Hulk's momentum as the huge goliath was sent hurtling into the side of a building, collapsing a wall in the process. Having learned of the Hulk's impressive durability from his previous crash, it came as no surprise to Ranma that he quickly got back to his feet, angrier than ever.  
  
It was going to be a long day.   
  
  
"Get those cameras into place!" News reporter Akemi Shutaro turned away from the scene of destruction that the two opponents were waging and looked at the men that had been assigned to her to cover the 'Mad Creature' story. Her boss was angry enough that Arika Miamata and channel 4 had already gotten the scoop on her and the station, but if they couldn't even get down there to send live images of the fight, Akemi might as well not bother going back to the station.   
  
The cameras were set up, and Akemi began to consider what to say as they prepared to go live on the air. She made up a quick, simple speech in her mind and began. "This is Akemi Shutaro of Channel Six News, proud to bring you live coverage of the emerald monstrosity and mysterious masked man that are doing battle in the streets of Nerima. The two as yet unidentified participants are waging aAHH!" Akemi suddenly discovered a large panda directly in front of her. She was about to bash it in the head with her microphone when it held up a sign.   
  
*I know who that heroic paragon of superheroism is.*   
  
Genma-panda found himself lifted up by the fur on his neck. "Tell me," Akemi growled, smelling blood as she knew she was at last going to get the scoop on that bitch, Arika. The next news award would go to her instead of that undeserving little hussy that had slept her way to the top.   
  
*His name is Captain Japan. He is Japan's greatest superhero. He is a man among men. A hero among heroes. A...* He brought a paper out from his fur and read it. *...symbol of our country's greatness and what it means to be Japanese.* Genma-panda sighed in relief. That was all of the points his wife had made him promise to make Ranma into.   
  
"Captain Japan sounds dumb," one of the cameramen said.   
  
"Yeah, it is," another mentioned.  
  
"'Rising Sun' sounds better."  
  
"And exactly how would a mere panda know all of this?" Akemi asked.   
  
Genma-panda suddenly appeared nervous. *Umm. I'm his cute animal sidekick.*  
  
The comments began again.   
  
"You're not very cute."  
  
"I thought only magical girls had cute animal sidekicks."  
  
"Why do people call them sidekicks anyway? Are you kicked to the side often?"  
  
Akemi came to Genma-panda's defense. "Well, I think he's a cute animal sidekick." And pinched his cheek for emphasis. Genma-panda placed his hand behind his head and laughed nervously. Maybe reporters weren't such bad people after all.  
  
  
The Iron Rose decided to listen to some music as she soared through the air. It was as she was going through the stations that she heard the news report about a fight in downtown Nerima between a monster and a masked man. Using her armor's global positioning system, she redirected her flight directly towards the area.   
  
  
Other eyes watched the drama unfolding before it. Multiple screens that took up one side of a huge room broadcasted coverage of the events unfolding in Nerima. A huge monster had easily demolished several squads of law enforcement officers without breaking out a sweat. It was now trying to destroy an elusive man with a curiously durable shield. Very interesting indeed.   
  
A pair of hands clapped, summoning forth a diminutive man dressed in an immaculate gray uniform. "Yes, M'lady?"  
  
"Roquat. I believe that our recent acquisition has gained me several interesting toys," the woman spoke while idly resting in her chair. "I wish to test one of them out against this creature. Let's see if Mishima Heavy Industries had anything worthwhile. Use that flying prototype."  
  
"And the protocols for this mission, M'Lady?" the little man asked.  
  
"I want to see the full capabilities of the machine. No restraints. And if there should happen to be civilian casualties, well, it's not as though Japan has any shortage of people, is it?"  
  
"No, M'Lady. It is not. The prototype shall be airborne within the next five minutes."  
  
  
Ranma felt his pride suffering as he found himself backing away once again. There was nothing that could be done about it. Nothing he did seemed to really hurt the monster. Even tricking the beast into running into the fallen power lines only served to slow him down for several seconds. Ramming his face into the shield did little good either, only feeding the monster's seemingly limitless anger. Though his reflexes and agility clearly surpassed the Hulk's, even Ranma's tremendous stamina was being taken to the limit.   
  
If there had been any doubt in Ranma's mind that he was beginning to tire, it was quickly erased as the Hulk came close enough to snag the front of Ranma's costume, specifically in the chest area. It took all of Ranma's strength to tear out of the grasp of his opponent, though it cost him the entire front of his costume as it was left behind in the Hulk's grasp. Not that that was a great loss considering how much he hated the thing anyway. With great reluctance Ranma decided it was time to unveil the Saotome Secret Technique and come up with another plan of action.   
  
Ranma began running away.  
  
  
The Hulk looked down at the piece of costume that was still in his hand. That was the closest he had come to solidly hitting his enemy and still the tiny man eluded his righteous vengeance. He looked away from the white and red cloth towards Ranma once again, only to see him begin to retreat from the field of battle at a rapid clip.   
  
"Enemy no run away!" The Hulk bellowed in rage at the smaller youth, and he brought his arms together with such force that a tremendous shockwave emanated from the force of the blow. The shockwave caught Ranma fully, stunning and throwing him more than twenty feet forward, his flight coming to a stop as he landed in the basin of a large fountain.   
  
The Hulk stalked forward menacingly towards his fallen foe, noting that the fallen youth was barely moving in the water. The Hulk brought his fist downward as his enemy at last sat up, giving the Hulk an unrestricted view of her generous bosom.  
  
The Hulk's brain fixated on that one new fact: her bosom. His fist stopped abruptly stopped no more than six inches from the target's head, then twin gouts of green blood flew from the Hulk's nostrils as he felt lightheaded and dizzy. He began to back away, anger inexplicably turning into embarrassment. It was just as he was covering his eyes and about to stammer out an apology, that twin beams of energy struck him cleanly in the chest, causing him far worse pain than anything that his previous enemy had done to him.   
  
As he tried focusing his attention on where the beams had originated, a black armored figure flew down directly in front of him and punched him with a metal encased fist. This time it was the Hulk who was sent flying through the air, his flight only stopping when he struck the side of a previously damaged building, causing the entire structure to collapse around him.   
  
The burial lasted only a moment as the Hulk hurled the debris off, sending it in every direction. As he rose to his feet, he at last caught a good view of his opponent.   
  
"Why did stupid-looking stove person attack Hulk?"  
  
"I DO NOT LOOK LIKE A STOVE!!!" That did it. Kodachi decided she was going to streamline the armor the first chance she got.   
  
"Hulk think stove person should take a look in the mirror."  
  
The Iron Rose kept her anger in check, though a part of her relished the opportunity to give full release to her emotions, unconcerned with how the others viewed her. She gave a sneer of disdain beneath the armor. "Insulting monster, it is time to bring your unchecked rampage to an end."   
  
The Hulk seemed stunned at the accusation. "Hulk not monster. Hulk, Hulk."  
  
"Whatever." Dozens of ribbon-like projections shot out from the gauntlet's of the Iron Rose's armor, wrapping themselves tightly around the Hulk's head and chest. He was about to rip them to shreds when five hundred thousand volts of current shot through the ribbons, flowing directly into his body. The Iron Rose gave a hearty laugh as the Hulk's legs buckled under the electrical assault.   
  
  
Ranma-chan shook her head free of the haze it had been under from the moment she had been caught in the Hulk's tremendous clap. She had just regained her feet when she found herself surrounded by a news team and her father/panda.   
  
The woman bearing the microphone stepped forward and took charge of the situation. "Once again this is Akemi Shutaro bringing you the scoop on what appears to be Japan's newest superhero." She thrust the microphone into Ranma-chan's face. "Excuse me, Miss. But what connection do you have to Captain Japan?"  
  
"Who?" Ranma-chan got out as she found herself blinded by a light.   
  
"You know, the guy who was fighting that monster. Are you his other sidekick? What's your name? How did you pull that switch with your partner? What attack did you use that caused the monster to pull back like that? And is going around topless part of your costume design?"  
  
Ranma-chan looked down and suddenly realized why it was so drafty out. The second realization, that her bare chest was now being broadcast to the entire nation of Japan, caused her to give out an 'Eek!' and cover herself up. She turned away from the camera, covering her chest as best she could while tearing off the remainder of her costume's top. She hurriedly managed to create a makeshift top that just barely covered her essentials.   
  
A groan of despair issued from the two male members of the news crew. One of them said, "Aww. I think your costume looked better without the top."  
  
"Shut up, pervert!" Ranma-chan landed a red-booted kick on his jaw. The other crewman mentioned he thought it was in much better taste to have a top with the costume.  
  
Once again Akemi thrust the microphone in Ranma-chan's face. "Are you Captain Japan's girlfriend?"  
  
"Who the hell is Captain Japan?" Ranma-chan asked once again.   
  
"You know," Akemi said, exasperated enough that she felt like smacking the young girl in the head. "The hunk with the shield that was fighting the green guy."  
  
For the first few seconds, all Ranma-chan could do was blink. Then the words set in. "Who told you that was his name?!"  
  
Genma-panda was beside her in a flash. *It was me. Pretty cool, huh?*  
  
Ranma-chan grabbed him by the throat. "What kind of stupid things are you tell-" The redhead was cut off as the microphone found its way between her and Genma-panda.   
  
"And what is your name?" Akemi asked, smelling a raise if she managed to get this scoop too.  
  
"I'm RanMURF!" Ranma-chan found herself cut off as Genma-panda clamped his paw over her mouth.   
  
He raised a sign. *This is Captain Japan's official human sidekick: Bucky.*  
  
That was the final straw. Wiggling free, the redhead grabbed the sign and broke it over her father's head. "Where the hell did you come up with that one?!"  
  
"There you have it, folks," Akemi said, now focusing her complete attention on the camera. "We have now met Captain Japan's official sidekick, Bucky. A name that is as mysterious as the hero whom she follows. What is the relationship between the two? Are they lovers?"  
  
"Of course not, you pervert! And my name's not Bucky!" Ranma-chan shouted as she hit her father again for good measure. She was fed up with the whole situation. If being a superhero wasn't bad enough, now she was two. She was about to explain to Akemi the whole, sordid situation when the sound of tearing metal caught her attention.   
  
She turned to see that the Hulk's armored foe had her metal ribbons ripped to shreds, The Hulk overcoming the amperage running through him. In the process of destroying the ties that bound him, he had thrown the Iron Rose off balance, giving him an opening with which to bring his fist into her form. The top of the fountain was destroyed as the force of the blow sent her flying through the air, just as she had done to the Hulk earlier.   
  
Ranma-chan told the others to get out of the area while she hurried to the Iron Rose's fallen form. "Are you all right?"  
  
Kodachi cleared the ringing out of her ears long enough to catch what 'Bucky' was saying. "Yes. It will take more than that to prevent the Iron Rose from saving the day."  
  
"Nice name," Bucky said, lamenting the fact that her father couldn't have come up with a cool name like that for her.  
  
"Stay back while I deal with the beast." The Iron Rose manually targeted the Hulk's approaching form. Once she was certain he was in her line of fire, she discharged her specially designed chest laser. It was one of the few weapons she had taken the time to give a special touch. One three hundred thousandth of the laser's power was shunted to forming the shape of a rose blossoming from the center of the beam. The brief image was there but for a moment before the beam shot outward and struck the Hulk dead center, the sudden pain from it causing his knees to buckle.  
  
"OHHOHOHOHO! Victory is mine!" Kodachi shouted out in glee at her fallen foe. The heady feeling of victory threatened to overwhelm her as she reveled in her display of superiority over her foe. Truly, donning the armor was the best thing that had ever happened in the brief life of the Black Rose.  
  
"I wouldn't count him out yet," Ranma-chan warned as she saw the Hulk's eyes practically turn red from anger.  
  
The Iron Rose scoffed. "The simpleton, for all of his muscle, is no match for the wondrous weaponry of my armor. None can stand up to my might."  
  
"Hulk not need to stand to knock stupid stove person off his feet!" The Hulk dug his fingers deep into the asphalt of the street and pulled up, tearing up a huge section of the lane, including the part both Bucky and the Iron Rose stood upon. The nature of the attack caught even the more agile Ranma-chan off-guard as she suddenly found herself hurled head over heels, landing on her back and then having several pieces of asphalt land on her.   
  
The Iron Rose was just reorienting herself from her unexpected trip when she caught sight of the Hulk's upraised fist over her head. It took her a moment to realize that this was the exact same pose the Hulk had when she had first flown overhead and spotted him about to hit the girl in the fountain. Only this time there was no armored hero to save her.  
  
  
Akane Tendo did not have the luxury of having a television or a radio close by to inform her of the war zone that Nerima had unexpectedly become, like Ranma and Kodachi had when they had first heard about the Hulk. She was made aware of the fact by the sounds of explosions and buildings falling, their noise destroying the relative calm of the park. Identifying that it was the sound of trouble that was assailing her ears, she decided on a course of action instantly. People might be in trouble, which meant she had to go and help.   
  
She ducked behind some bushes, then brought her cane down on the ground. A flash of lighting struck the area, a bolt which would have blinded anyone had they been present. Once the light disappeared, Thor, Goddess of Thunder strode Midgard once more. Spinning her mystic hammer in a circular motion at her side, she hurled it away, the enchantment on it enabling her to fly by maintaining her grip on the leather thong as Mjolnir cut through the air. She made a direct line for the cloud of dust that rose from the unexpected urban renewal Nerima was under going.  
  
In less than thirty seconds, Thor was directly overhead and witnessed the Hulk getting ready to strike an armored warrior. Deciding the monster was the one that was undoubtedly the cause of the war zone her district had become, Thor changed the direction of her flight and aimed straight for the Hulk. "Turn and face the Goddess of Thunder, beast!"  
  
The Hulk turned in rage towards the person who dared to interrupt him as he was about to deal out his righteous vengeance. He turned to the sky, and one thought suddenly overcame all the others.   
  
"Oh. Hammer girl pretty."  
  
Further thoughts on the matter ended rather abruptly as Thor connected with a powerful haymaker straight to the Hulk's open jaw. His head snapped back as he felt light-headed once again, this time not from embarrassment or blood loss.  
  
Thor looked on, impressed. "Few are there that can withstand the might of mine blow. But fall you must." And with that she drew back her hammer and connected solidly with the Hulk's skull once more, this time with the full power of Mjolnir.   
  
The Hulk's head snapped back again. He fell backward this time, landing on his bottom. His head wobbled back and forth as he tried to follow the motion of the stars that seemed to be twirling around his head. The stars weren't as pretty as the hammer girl, though.  
  
Thor looked on in surprise. "The beast must have the blood of storm giants running through his veins to remain conscious after that blow." She was reluctant to strike out at the semi-fallen form again. Perhaps he was simply dumb, and it would take several extra moments for him to realize he should be unconscious.   
  
  
Colonel Yamaguchi looked towards the satellite image of the scene of devastation on the screen. He turned from the tableau before him to look once again at Professor Anno. "Tell me again why you won't obey our command?"  
  
Professor Anno scowled at the man once again. "Sir. The Super X-1 was designed to be used against Godzilla. Simply put, it lacks the precision necessary to be used against a man-sized target like that green monster, especially in an urban theater. Collateral damage from employing any of the weapon systems would be unacceptable. And unless you completely evacuate the area, the chance of innocents being killed is too great."  
  
"Sir!"   
  
Col. Yamaguchi turned in irritation towards the soldier manning the communications console. What is it?"   
  
"We have visual confirmation on an unidentified flying object entering the targets' airspace. It is definitely not one of ours."  
  
The colonel felt his headache worsen. Somehow he had a feeling that things had just gotten worse.   
  
  
Ranma-chan was still thinking evil thoughts of her father as she pried herself up from the wreckage of the street. How had the blimp come up with names as stupid as Captain Japan and Bucky? And how the heck was she supposed to be both a superhero AND her own sidekick?  
  
She walked over to stand next to the tall newcomer with the metal winged helmet and hammer. The woman was obviously a foreigner, but it had sounded to Ranma-chan like she had spoken Japanese, though with an archaic dialect. "Nice job there, uh, Miss."  
  
Thor turned to look at the small red-haired girl that wore a strip of cloth that just barely covered her chest, and red mask. " I am Thor, Goddess of Thunder. Thou should leave the area, harlot."   
  
It took a moment for Ranma-chan to translate that. "Hey! I ain't no harlot!"  
  
"Judging by your raiment, I presume thou art a harlot of some kind. No woman of decency would go about in such tawdry clothing that was obviously meant to tempt men's desires. Even at her worst, the Enchan..." Thor suddenly felt dizzy as a pain went through her skull. There had been something she had been about to say. Something about a woman with platinum blonde hair that had attempted to kiss him...no. That should have been 'her', not 'him.' She was confused.  
  
"Hey, you okay?" Ranma-chan moved to help the suddenly swaying woman. She was at her side just in time to catch her as she began to fall. Unfortunately for the newly dubbed Bucky, Thor's weight proved far greater than it appeared, and she was nearly bowled over as she tried to support the taller woman's frame. In so doing, she had to shift her grip slightly in order to better support the goddess.  
  
The pain passed as Thor's thought's cleared. It was as the ache subsided that she noticed a not altogether unpleasant sensation coming from her chest. She looked down to see that there was now a hand upon her breast, squeezing it slightly.  
  
Hand squeezing her breast? Her eyes followed the hand to the arm, then followed the arm to the body, then followed the body to the head. Recognition followed. "PERVERT, UNHAND ME!"   
  
Bucky barely got out of the way of the blow aimed at her head as Thor regained her feet.. "It wasn't my fault! You're heavier than you look."  
  
Thor's face began to twitch. "Didst thou call me fat?"  
  
"That wasn't what I said at all!" Ranma-chan protested. She turned to the recovered Iron Rose. "You tell her."  
  
"It sounded like you called her fat to me," the Iron Rose answered. Certainly that was the way Kodachi would have interpreted it if someone had said that to her.  
  
Bucky looked at her in shock. "I did not! I just said she was heavier than she looked."  
  
"Pretty hammer girl not fat!"  
  
"Exactly." Thor nodded appreciatively at the Hulk's defense as he came up to stand at her side. "It was...Od's blood!" Thor exclaimed as she realized that the Hulk had indeed recovered. Never had anyone recuperated so quickly from two of her blows.  
  
Before yet another battle could erupt, the final player arrived at the scene.  
  
Floating on nearly silent fanjets, the discus shaped aircraft had flown as low as ten feet off the ground and traveled at speeds in excess of two hundred kilometers per hour, changing its altitude only when confronted with an obstruction in its flight path. The circular craft was dull sliver, with black stripes along its wing tips and in two long lines across the top and bottom portion of the craft. Two white ovals protruded from the tiny nose at the front of the vehicle, almost like eyes, giving it the appearance of a feral animal sizing up its prey. Where once there were seats designed for pilots in the craft, there now rested an advanced Mujuru 5000 computer system that was designated as being superior to any human that could pilot the craft. It was able to simultaneously track more than thirty individual targets and employ any of its fifty-two various weapon systems in the most appropriate fashion in less than 0.3 seconds. It was the pinnacle of what had been Mishima Heavy Industries Weapons Department.   
  
Poison One was prepared for combat.  
  
  
Blue eyes watched Poison One's external monitors as the aircraft hovered overhead.  
  
The diminutive man spoke once again. "It appears the fighting has stopped, as well as several other people appearing in the combat zone. What shall we do, M'Lady?"  
  
"What shall we do?" she repeated. "More people mean more targets to test the weapons systems on. Eliminate every living thing in the target zone."  
  
The man bowed and relayed the orders to Poison One.  
  
  
The hair on the back of Bucky's neck stood up as the Iron Rose shouted, "My sensor's indicate a power build-up from that craft. I think it's getting ready to-"  
  
"DUCK!" Bucky shouted as she saw the metal projections suddenly popped out from a concealed spot on the wings. White light formed in front of the projections, giving her only a moment to hurl herself, shield first, in front of the person closest to her that it was targeting: Thor.  
  
Thor's reactions were slower as she managed to do no more than raise her arm in front of her before Poison One fired a set of its wing lasers at her. She was amazed to see the small form of Bucky leap in front of her and take the brunt of the laser with the shield.   
  
The other target of the wing lasers was not so lucky. The Hulk found himself struck in the chest by the white hot beams of energy coming from the left wing, and howled in pain from the coherent beam of light.   
  
The Iron Rose had been in the air a second after she had determined the assault craft weapons had been powering up. She flew to the left side of the craft, hoping to flank it as she brought her arms up and prepared to unleash a pair of palm mounted repulsor blasts at the craft. Just as she rose up to the height of the airborne attacker, a panel slid aside to reveal a three-by-three grid of cylinders hidden within. The Iron Rose had only one second to recognize the nature of the device before it launched a series of nine slender missiles at her.   
  
"Oh dear," she said quietly as she tried to dodge the barrage. She evaded the first five missiles, but due to the armor's tremendous weight, combined with her inexperience, allowed the remaining four to hit. The impact of the explosions sent her spiraling into the ground, striking the street hard and damaging even more of the area around her. The scent of something burning assailed her nostrils. Quickly she gave the voice command to run a diagnostic check. Within moments the report came up, showing damage to thirty percent of her systems. The extra armor was paying off, and she began to reconsider streamlining the armor.  
  
  
The moment the lasers discontinued their sustained burst, the Hulk was ready to retaliate. He said no words. Rather, leg muscles that could propel him five miles in a single jump tensed up as the Hulk crouched for a moment, then leaped, aiming for Poison One.  
  
The Mujuru 5000 instantly calculated the Hulk's leap and spun on its axis, suddenly becoming perpendicular to the ground. The Hulk shot past where the left wing had been a second ago and continued upward. As he passed, Poison One tilted back so that it was parallel to the ground once more. On the top of the vehicle, yet another metal panel peeled back and the barrels of four machine guns poked out. They took only a moment to track the Hulk's now descending form, and began firing experimental, armor piercing, explosive bullets into him. The Hulk's hide was far too thick for even those rounds to pierce, and they bounced off of him instead, though the kinetic energy from the impacts still caused him pain.  
  
Even as the Hulk was being fired upon, Poison One discontinued its ineffectual laser shot at Bucky, the computer determining no damage was being done to the target. In less than a second a new course of action was decided upon and another weapon was activated from the underside of the hovering craft.  
  
Bucky felt the lasers at last stop and poked her head from above her shield. A second later, she felt herself picked up by the back of her neck by the woman she had just saved.   
  
"What the heck do you think you're doing?!" Bucky exclaimed into the irate face of Thor.  
  
"The Goddess of Thunder does not need the protection of mortals. Better to keep thou out of harms way." With that said, she casually tossed the redhead more than twenty feet away, and in the opposite direction from Poison One.  
  
Bucky landed on her feet, more angry now than when she had been fired upon. "Where do you get off telling me I can't defend my...LOOK OUT!"  
  
Thor turned just in time to see a nozzle extend from the bottom of the aircraft and shoot some kind of pink spray at her, quickly covering her from head to toe. She was about to growl out how demeaning it was for her to be attacked with a giant squirt gun, but then felt her limbs suddenly stiffen.   
  
"Good lord! That's a molecular bonding Shimataka plastic!" The Iron Rose shouted as she regained her feet. The substance was incredibly expensive, a gallon of it costing almost as much as a conventional tank. Whoever was behind the aircraft must have had unbelievable financing. She activated her loudspeakers and turned her attention to Bucky. "Once that makes contact with the air, it'll become five times harder than titanium! We have to get it off her before she suffocates!"  
  
Bucky was about to run to the pink lump that had just been Thor, when she saw cracks begining to form on the plastic. She barely got her shield up in time before the cocoon exploded outward, throwing pieces everywhere.  
  
Thor glared in fury at the metal object before her. "Enough, mortal chariot! Thou hast incurred the full wrath of Thor!" And with that she threw her hammer. Even the computer systems aboard the Poison One were unable to compensate for the velocity at which the hammer traveled, and Mjolnir struck the aircraft directly on its nose. Four layers of armor were peeled back as the craft was hurled back twenty feet, before internal gyroscopes compensated for the unplanned movement.   
  
It had just finished righting itself when its targeting computer spotted the Hulk trying to attack it from behind. Twin nozzles extended from the rear of the craft this time, hurling a combination of napalm and white phosphorous at its would-be attacker. Rather than succumb to the heat, the Hulk jumped anyway, this time connecting with the rear of the craft and sending it end over end as though it were some kind of poorly thrown frisbee. It deflected off of two buildings before righting itself again.  
  
The Hulk was dismayed to discover that even though Poison One had stopped shooting him, the flames remained, clinging to his skin. He roared out in pain as the heat began to get to him.  
  
Thor, despite her fight with the Hulk before, could not bear to see him suffering so. "I shall summon a storm to ease the beast's pain."   
  
"Water won't put it out," the Iron Rose warned. "We need something to remove the substance from the skin itself."  
  
"Then I shall employ the winds to do mine task." Thor began to spin her hammer by the thong, faster than any human could hope to do. It appeared as a white circular blur as within moments a gale force wind emanated from it. The Hulk felt the winds come and braced himself as best he could. The gust proved sufficient as the gel was blown from his body, while his hair remained backward with a windswept appearance.   
  
As Thor admired her handiwork, Bucky spoke up from her side. "Guess who's back."  
  
All gazes turned skyward to Poison One's reappearance. Over a dozen gun ports opened up across the width of the vehicle, all of them aimed towards the quartet of people below it.   
  
"As much I've enjoyed the exhilaration of this combat, I've grown weary of these games." The Iron Rose raised her arms and used both repulsors, as well as her chest laser. Damage from the combined blows of Thor and the Hulk to the computer's evasion circuits prevented Poison One from reacting in time as all three beams struck home. Blasts of energy were joined by a Toyota, hurled harder than any cannonball, by the Hulk. Again armor plating crumpled as the automobile ricocheted off the main body of the vehicle.  
  
Seeing Poison One withering under the assault, Thor at last took her turn. Smiling at long last being given a chance to use her full power, she brought her hammer down, summoning a tremendous bolt of lighting from the heavens that crashed down directly upon the center of the craft. Currents of electricity leaped about its surface as its electrical shielding was overpowered by the amount of amperage that struck its metal surface. Smoke began to pour from various rents in the craft as it wobbled in midair.  
  
  
The woman glared at the screen before her. "It appears Poison One was not as promising as I had hoped. I'm afraid we'll have to scrap the whole project. Roquat."  
  
The smaller man turned stiffly towards the woman once again. "M'Lady?"  
  
"According to the damage report, the gravity cannon is still operational."  
  
"True, M'Lady. However it is a fairly useless weapon. The amount of power it draws from the craft would drain its primary systems dry in less than a minute."  
  
"That's all right," the woman assured him. "It only takes forty seconds to overload the main power core. That should effectively eradicate any evidence, as well as those annoying people."  
  
"The detonation will completely obliterate ten city blocks," Roquat pointed out.  
  
"Good point. Have our construction businesses standing by to take the rebuilding contracts. We should make a fortune in the aftermath."  
  
"Well done, M'Lady." Roquat bowed before her.   
  
  
The Iron Rose's eyes widened as the craft's bottom tilted in their direction and a large greenish light built up on the underside. She recognized the distortion effect in less than a second.  
  
"Gravity wave!" It was too late. The greenish distortion leaped forward, catching her in its effect. Her mind raced even as the increase in gravity suddenly pinned her to the ground. Gravity cannons took an ungodly amount of power to run. None of her readouts on the craft indicated it had that level of power within it. She did a quick analysis of the craft as she diverted power to her musculature in the hopes of being able to get out of the gravity effect. As she got the feedback on the analysis, she at last understood what was about to happen.  
  
"IT'S GOING TO EXPLODE!!!"  
  
  
"It appears everything is going well," the woman commented.   
  
"M'Lady," Roquat interrupted. "It appears only three of the targets were caught in the gravity cannon's blast."  
  
  
Bucky had just barely ducked under the distortion effect as it passed overhead. Even catching only the faintest portion of the blast had weighed her down, forcing her to use every ounce of her strength to continued rolling until the effects were non-existent. She ducked behind the shattered remains of a building to evaluate the situation. Bad enough that her fight with the Hulk was inconclusive, but during the entire fight with the strange vehicle she had been all but ineffectual, angering her to no end. She had to do something to prove to the others she was not some sort of wimp that let others do her fighting for her. Noting the other three had been caught in the gravity blast, it now fell to her to take the flying vehicle out.   
  
Her eyes looked over the damaged vehicle. There were rents and tears all over its exterior and smoke was pouring from a number of places all over the craft. There had to be some spot she could strike out at. Some part which would disable the craft.   
  
Then she saw it. A large portion of the armor towards the nose of Poison One had been torn away when Thor had thrown her hammer at it. The craft was still slightly tilted towards Bucky's direction and she saw what appeared to be computer consoles in the nose. She was willing to bet that was what ran the ship, and that it would be far easier to damage those then it would the exterior of the vehicle.   
  
A plan formed in her mind instantly. She ran out from the cover of rubble and charged the craft. Poison One detected Bucky's charge and side armaments popped into view. Bucky saw the weapons but continued charging, shield held at the ready, dodging back and forth as she continued her run.  
  
A missile just missed her as a hail of bullets rang off her shield. She weathered the storm of fire and leaped up, her finger catching the edge of a hole in the metal. She swung her legs back once, and executed a flip onto the top of the craft. Poison One could not actually move its position without losing its targeting on the three people in front of it, so it diverted power to the metal skin, raising the surface temperature of the craft in the hopes of frying the intruder.  
  
Bucky felt her feet begining to get hot as the surface of the craft grew to an almost scorching heat. She leaped onto the nose of the craft, straddling the nose, ignoring the heat as she felt her calves begin to burn, and wedged her shield into the rent in the armor. Using all of her strength, she levered the shield until more of the metal peeled back, allowing her full access into what was once the cockpit. Having a clear shot at the main console of the computer, she brought the shield into it, causing a cascade of sparks to shoot out from it. Within moments the gravity wave flickered, then faded from existence. More importantly Poison One hovered in the air only a second longer before wobbling badly, then crashing. Bucky barely had time to leap free of the craft before it impacted with the ground.   
  
She stood off to the side with the others. "You think that finished it off?"  
  
"Not know. Hulk make sure it not hurt him again." The Hulk stepped forward, sinking his fingers into the metal of the craft and practically ripping the thing in half.   
  
"That'll do it," Bucky said as she stared at the wreckage that had once been Poison One. "So, what do we do now?"  
  
The Iron Rose examined her diagnostics again. Thanks to the gravity cannon, her power levels were low and her heart was beginning to shoot waves of pain through her. "Business calls elsewhere. I must depart. It was quite fun." Saying nothing else, she activated her boot jets and took off, giving a hearty "OHHOHOHOHO!" as she cut through the air.   
  
A different thought shot through the Hulk's mind. The pretty hammer girl was standing next to him, and he felt embarrassed again. He began to poke his mighty finger into a nearby wall as he tried to figure out what to say to her. It was as he was subconsciously spelling out 'Hammer Girl' that his eyes spotted a fallen sign that had once hung in a now demolished floral shop.  
  
'Want to say something to the girl you love? Say it with flowers.'  
  
The Hulk smiled at that. He would tell her how he felt with flowers. He leaped off in search of some.   
  
The remaining duo watched the Hulk leap off with a wide grin on his face. "It appears yon monster hath lost his appetite for destruction. It is time for me to go as well." And with that she flew off as well.  
  
Bucky scratched her head as she looked over the demolished area once again. No one had better try to tell her to clean things up. She was still trying to figure out what to do when she found herself surrounded by reporters once again.  
  
"What was that flying craft you fought?"  
  
"How did you know how to defeat that thing?"  
  
"Do you have a boyfriend?"  
  
"Did you know that your top just disintegrated?"  
  
Bucky looked down to see that, indeed, the fight had taken its toll on the makeshift top as it finally gave up and fell into several pieces on the ground. That was it. Tired of giving the world free peep shows, she covered herself as best as she could and began leaping from rooftop to rooftop, getting as much distance between her and the reporters as she could.   
  
She hadn't made it more than four blocks away when her 'cute animal sidekick' appeared at her side. *Nice job, Bucky.*  
  
That got him a whack in the head. "Where the hell did you come up with a dumb name like that?!"  
  
*It seemed like a good one at the time. Full of character, and easy on the tongue.*  
  
Bucky gave a soft chuckle. "Well, I'm afraid that's the last time we'll be seeing 'Bucky,' or 'Captain Japan.' This costume's destroyed." She indicated the tattered remains of the costume she was wearing.  
  
*Not to worry.* Genma-panda produced another complete costume from out of nowhere. *I had that seamstress make dozens of them. You're going to make a top-notch superhero, son.*  
  
Bucky began seething in anger. "And in a couple of minutes, I'm going to have a cute, shag panda rug! And I ain't gonna be a superhero!" she watched as her father acknowledged the threat of impending violence in her eyes and made a run for it, his 'son' hot on his heels.   
  
  
And in the distance, a green armored figure cursed how event had occurred. Captain Japan should have been dead at the Hulk's hands, but instead The Iron Rose and Thor had shown up and saved the day. Even worse, when the odd craft had appeared, they had shown that they could form an alliance and work as a team should the need arise. Instead of preventing their formation, the seeds of the hated Avengers had been planted instead.   
  
Kang shouted at the skies above, cursing his luck. Now he had to form another plan. There was still time. Perhaps dropping a suggestion to a certain American scientist that was trying to locate a gamma-irradiated pig would be in order. Kang knew first hand that, in spite of the difference in physical forms, one's gamma signature never changed. Yes. That just might work. It might take a little while, but he still had time. Killing the Avengers one-by-one would work just as well seeing them never form. Yes indeed. His cry of anger now became one of joy.  
  
And the rain came falling down.  
  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Special thanks to:  
  
Gary Ee  
Jurai-Knight  
Lord Talon  
Ryoucilio  
Wade Tritschler  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	3. Blind Man's Bluff

Avenging  
Chapter 3  
  
Blind Man's Bluff  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
An Ranma 1/2/Avengers (the superhero group) fusion  
  
All C+C is craved for  
You can contact me at  
sommer@3rdm.net  
  
Standard Disclaimer: Hell, no. I don't own any of the characters  
Avenging is being kept at:  
  
Doug's Archive at:  
http://www.theisp.net/pages/catman/  
  
Slashley's page at  
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Shrine/5747/  
  
And my own page at:  
http://angcobra.jumpfun.com/dbsommer.html  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
  
Even in a place as odd as Nerima, one did not have race cars crash through the front glass of a bank all that often.  
  
So it was that the huge glass window to the bank's lobby shattered in a loud crash, which caused all of the customers, tellers, and security guards to throw themselves on the ground and cover their heads. The cacophony continued as the loud impact of the race car that had driven through the window landed on the tiled floor and skidded across it. It somehow missed all of the prone patrons and came to a stop in front of the counter, right next to a teller.   
  
The engine fell silent, and the clear plastic dome that had been in place over the roofless car slid back, allowing the driver to stand up so that all in the lobby could see him. He wore a gaudy-looking blue leather jacket and pants with yellow birds all over them. On his head was a dark blue crash helmet, and he wore oversized driving goggles over his eyes, obscuring his features from the world. He held a machine-gun in his hands and brandished it in the air; the hint of deadly menace clear in his manner.  
  
One of the bank tellers nearest to the car stood up and spoke. "Sir, I'm afraid the drive-thru is located on the other side of the bank."  
  
"Oh. Sorry about that." The driver began to sit down, then slapped himself in the helmet and stood up once again. "This is a stick-up! Nobody move or you'll be sorry! Now my name's Stuntmaster, and I want you to give me all of your money o-"  
  
"Hey! You're Speed Racer!" one of the customers said as he got up off the floor and pointed at Stuntmaster in awe.   
  
Eyes widened beneath oversized driving goggles. "H...how did you-" Stuntmaster took a deep, calming breath and collected his thoughts. "I'm afraid you're mistaken, sir. My name is Stuntmaster. As you might have guessed by my outfit, I am a supervillain, and have no affiliation whatsoever with that scourge of the speedways, Speed Racer."   
  
"But you're driving the Mach-5." The man pointed at the distinctive-looking white race car with the big red 'M' on the hood.   
  
"Argh!" Stuntmaster grunted as he smacked himself in the helmet once again. He knew he had forgotten to do something. Trying to salvage something from the mess his situation had become, he said, "I...umm, stole it from him. Yes, that's it. I stole it from him and now it's called the Stuntmobile."  
  
"Why does it still have an 'M' on the hood? Stuntmobile starts with an 'S'," a five year old boy pointed out.  
  
"Mind your own business!" Stuntmaster shot back.   
  
Just as he finished shouting, the trunk to the 'Stuntmobile,' flung open and two diminutive figures, armed with submachine-guns, burst out from it.   
  
"Freeze! If anyone moves, I'll cap your sorry ass!"  
  
"Ook! Ook!"  
  
Stuntmaster looked on in shock at the two stowaways. "Spridal! Chim Chim! What the hell are you doing here?"  
  
Spridal gave an okay sign to his brother. "Me and Chim Chim wanted to help out, just like we always do."  
  
Stuntmaster brought his hands to his helmet. "Pop's going to kill me for getting you involved in this heist."  
  
Silently, one of the security guards approached Stuntmaster, staying out of the gaudily dressed supervillain's line of sight. He went undetected, getting within a foot of the villain before drawing the object from within the confines of his uniform and poked Stuntmaster in the back with it.  
  
"Can I have your autograph, Mr. Racer?" the security guard asked, pen and a piece of bank stationery in hand.  
  
By almost unconscious reflex, Stuntmaster said, "Sure," and began to sign the paper. It took him a moment to realize what he was doing. He quit signing the autograph and brandished his weapon once more. "Quit horsing around! This is a stick-up, so act like it!"  
  
A thrown billy club connected with the side of Stuntmaster's helmet, producing a ringing sensation, but otherwise leaving him unharmed. His eyes followed the path of the attacking weapon, which bounced once on the floor before returning to the hand of its wielder.   
  
All eyes turned to see the man, standing next to open area where the window had been a moment ago. He was wearing a loose-fitting, blood red robe and a red mask with two tiny horns on the head. The lower portion of the mask was cut out, allowing the masked adventurer to talk without any obstructions. Two overlapping 'D's in black lettering were clear on the center of his chest.  
  
"Oh my god!" Stuntmaster gasped. "It's Batman!"  
  
The billy club met his face this time.   
  
"I'm not Batman, you moron!" the man in red shot back.  
  
Stuntmaster began jumping up and down in joy. Here he was, only on his first official super-villain outing and already he rated the attention of a superhero. With all of the witnesses present, it was his chance to make it big.   
  
Preening like a peacock, Stuntmaster boldly announced to the crowd, "So, it's my arch-nemesis..." Stuntmaster suddenly realized he didn't have the faintest idea of who his opponent was. The double 'D's on his chest must have stood for something, and it probably had nothing to do with the masked man's breast size. Stuntmaster's mind raced with the possibilities.   
  
"Destructive Dan?"  
  
"What are you talking about?" the red-garbed adventurer asked in obvious bewilderment.  
  
"Dr. Danger?" Stuntmaster guessed again.  
  
"Don't be absurd." The masked man at last understood what Stuntmaster was doing.  
  
"Dirk Domino?"  
  
"Can't you at least be imaginative?"  
  
"Dastardly Disaster?"  
  
"That's it! My name is-"  
  
"I've got it! The Debutante Detective!"  
  
A billy club met his helmet in the second time. "My name is Daredevil! Daredevil!"  
  
"No need for such language, my arch-nemesis," Stuntmaster assured him.  
  
"I'm not your arch-nemesis," Daredevil pointed out as his teeth gnashed together. "This is the first time we've ever met, Speed Racer."  
  
"I'm Stuntmaster, not Speed Racer!" the villain snapped. "And this is but the first of many meetings we shall have."  
  
Daredevil shook his head. "Not likely. I'm going to capture you right now and you're going to jail for a very long time."  
  
Stuntmaster scoffed at the very idea. "What are you going to do? Bounce your billy club off my helmet again? Hahahaha. I've had my head run over by Racer X himself, and came out of it without a scratch. Haha-"  
  
Stuntmaster found himself struck all over his body from dozens of billy clubs that were hurled from the loose sleeves of Daredevil's robes. Stuntmaster was knocked backward, momentarily stunned by the unexpected assault.   
  
Spridal gave a sigh of disappointment. It was up to him to save the day. He turned to his simian companion. "Let's nail the horn-headed freak."  
  
Daredevil barely had time to duck through the broken frame and outside the bank. He remained behind one of the walls as a hail of gunfire from the tiny terrors arched his way. Once there was a break in the gunfire, Daredevil shouted, "Shouldn't you be in school, little boy?"  
  
"Where do you think I scored these guns?" Spridal snapped back, then sent another burst near Daredevil's location.  
  
As Spridal sprayed the area with gunfire, Stuntmaster had recovered enough to hear the sounds of sirens nearby. He turned to his brother and pet monkey. "We're out of here, you two! Hop in the backseat."  
  
"What about the money, Speed?"  
  
"IT'S STUNTMASTER!!!" he snapped back. "We'll get some the next time we knock over a bank!"  
  
"But I wanna' DVD player!" Spridal wined before Stuntmaster grabbed hold of both him and Chim Chim by the backs of their collars and tossed them into the backseat. The moment they hit, Stuntmaster started the engine. With the push of a button on the steering wheel, a bulletproof plexi-glass shield came over the top and completely sealed the driver's compartment. The bank customers dove for cover once again as the Mach 5 turned around in the lobby and pointed towards the exact path it had come in through.  
  
Daring to look around the corner, Daredevil looked just in time to see the Mach-5 surge forward towards the opening, using the four automatic jacks located next to each tire to leap up into the air and through the shattered windowpane to the street beyond.   
  
Upon landing and steering the Mach 5 in the direction he wanted it to go, Stuntmaster saw that the police had had enough time to set up twin barricades that blocked both ends of the road. That earned a sneer from Stuntmaster as he charged forward towards one set of the police cars.   
  
The touch of a different button caused twin buzzsaws to extend from their concealed positions in the front of the car. The Mach 5 only slowed down slightly as the saws tore through the police cars like they were composed of paper mache. Stuntmaster laughed hard as he sped past the scene of destruction, looking back over his shoulder so that he could enjoy the carnage one last time before leaving its sight. As he was still admiring his handiwork, sounds began to come from the backseat.  
  
"Here he comes. Here comes Speed Racer. He's a demon on wheels."  
  
"SHUT UP!" Stuntmaster bellowed at Spridal and Chim Chim as he considered throwing them out on general principle.   
  
The Mach 5 turned a corner around the next building, only to see a familiar red-garbed figure make a swooping pass, using a cable from one of his billy clubs, a good fifty feet in front of the car. Daredevil continued his arc as he swung from one building to the next. Stuntmaster was wondering how Daredevil could have been so far off on his swing when he spotted the caltrops that were now lying directly in the middle of the street, having been released by the hero on the 'errant' swing.   
  
Stuntmaster hit the button for the automatic jacks again. There was a loud bang from the front left tire before the Mach 5 was airborne. It cleared the remainder of the caltrops easily, but as the car landed Stuntmaster could feel the damage had been done.  
  
"Spee...I mean Stuntmaster, we're slowing down," Spridal said.   
  
"It can't be helped," Stuntmaster replied as he turned to cut through the downtown section of Tokyo. The nearest hideout was located no more than twenty miles away from their current position. Barring the police somehow having stumbled onto the hideout, they were home free. The only thing that truly worried Stuntmaster at that point was Daredevil. By swinging from building to building, and due to the slower speed of the Mach 5 from the blown out tire, there was an offhand chance he might cause problems again. To make his path harder to follow, Stuntmaster went down a series of side streets and alleys. True, it would slow him down further, but losing Daredevil would make it all worthwhile. He continued down several others before setting back on his proper course and onto one of the main streets of downtown Tokyo again. Stuntmaster afforded a glance above to see if Daredevil was around, but there was no one in sight.  
  
"Ha! We've escaped him. It seems my arch nemesis isn't so smart after all." Stuntmaster noticed a 'Bridge Is Out' sign in the middle of the street and followed the detour down the alleyway.   
  
Stuntmaster was still basking in the glory of his escape as he gunned the engine and hurried to the tunnel ahead. It was odd how the thing was pitch black though, almost as if all of the lights in the tunnel were burned out, but then Tokyo street crews had been very lax about their upkeep lately. It was only as Stuntmaster was ten meters away from the 'tunnel' that he suddenly realized there were no bridges in the middle of downtown Tokyo.  
  
  
The sound of a car crashing into an alleyway wall resounded throughout the area.   
  
  
Daredevil stood at the top of the building and looked down into the alleyway below. "I can't believe he fell for that," the hero said as black paint continued to drip from the paintbrush he still held in his hand. Some people just were not cut out for the supervillain business.   
  
As Daredevil put the brush and Braille-marked can of black paint back within the confines of his robes, he focused his radar sense on the demolished car below. He could sense the strong heartbeats of all three riders, and that they were currently pinned in the car by the airbags that had erupted on impact. There were even ones in the backseat, curiously enough.   
  
The sound of sirens became louder as several police cars pulled into the mouth of the alleyway. He could feel the warmth of the sun on his skin, and knew it was almost finishing setting. Deciding to allow the authorities to mop up, the superhero known as Daredevil, the Man Without Fear, headed towards a certain pool hall in Nerima, where he was expected by someone whom it was unwise to disappoint.   
  
  
"And I bet you she can't make the shot."  
  
The regular patrons of Ohtana's Bar let out a collective sigh. Ohtana himself, who was busy cleaning a shot glass, looked at the new loudmouth. The bar owner thought he had overheard the man refer to himself as, 'Bonecrusher' Kyan. "You don't wanna do that. It's not too late to back down."  
  
"Bullshit! No one can sink all five of those balls in one shot. Not with the way they're sitting." Bonecrusher spit on the floor at the very idea.  
  
Ohtana wondered if Bonecrusher thought he was being insulting in spitting on the floor of the dimly lit pool hall. Compared to some of the other fluids that had ended up on the wooden planks, spit would only add to the shine. "Stick can do it."  
  
A consensus of "Yeah's" emanated from the bar's patrons.  
  
Realizing he was now the sole center of attention, Bonecrusher gave the whole crowd a hard stare. Obviously they were trying to have fun at the newcomer's expense if they thought he was going to buy that story about her being able to sink that shot. 'Stick' indeed. Looking at her, he wondered how they could even suggest such a person could do what they claimed.   
  
Bonecrusher noted that the subject of the outrageous claim was a three foot tall, wrinkly-looking woman that must have been around a hundred years old and looked more like a troll than a human being. She wore an outfit that consisted of a long-sleeved, green denim shirt and matching pants that had almost surely been bought at a children's department store, given their size. For some odd reason she chose to wear a New York Yankees baseball cap, under which a held her white hair, save for one long pony-tail that hung out the back. There was also her annoying tendency to somehow balance herself on the top of a pool cue, even going so far as hopping around on it like it was a giant pogo stick. No doubt that was where the nickname of 'Stick' came from.  
  
However her most outstanding feature was her eyes, which were milky white orbs that no longer had the faintest trace of pupils. Obviously she was blind, which made the so-called 'joke' even more insulting. The very idea that a blind person could make the shot the others were proposing was like a slap in the face to Bonecrusher. Well, he would show them. He would call their ridiculous bluff and get a hold of some quick cash in the bargain. He slammed down the ten thousand yen he had wagered, on the pool table.  
  
"Bet accepted," Stick said as she hopped off the top of the pool cue she had been standing on and landed on the edge along one of the rails of the pool table. She brought her former perch up and into her hands as she lined the long shaft up with the cue ball.  
  
"Aren't you going to chalk it up?" Bonecrusher asked, wondering how she knew which one was the cue ball. She had been standing on the stick since he had arrived at the bar. The soles of her shoes had to have been in blue.   
  
Stick gave a snort at that. Bonecrusher wondered why he had even bothered mentioning it. Not all of the chalk in the world was going to help her. Even if she had not been blind, there was no way on earth that she, or anyone else for that matter, would have been able to make the five shot combo with the way the balls were lying on the table. He smirked at the easy money that was all but already in his hands.  
  
Without looking in Boncrusher's direction, Stick said, "If I were you, I'd wipe that smirk off your face. You'll look slightly less stupid when you lose. Not by much, but every little bit helps."  
  
A scowl creased Bonecrusher's features. How did the blind, old piece of mackerel jerky know he was smiling?  
  
Yawning, Stick drew back on the cue and shot. There was a loud crack as she hit the cue ball dead on. Even as the balls rolled along the table, she turned to Bonecrusher and gave him a toothy grin that showed off a perfect, gleaming smile.   
  
The smile made chills run down the six foot mass of muscle's spine. "What the hell are you grinning at, you pruney old hag?"   
  
As the last word left his mouth, he heard why. The sound of several balls dropping into the pockets of the table caught his full attention. Turning his gaze from the old woman, he watched in mounting horror as the third, then fourth ball fell into a pocket. There was only one left, the eight ball, amazingly enough. Slowly, inexorably, it rolled towards the side pocket nearest to him. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as the black ball drifted to the edge of the pocket. For a moment it sat on the edge of the black-green precipice, taunting him, showing him how close doom lay, daring him to speak out in protest, yet Bonecrusher said nothing.   
  
And then the ball stopped.   
  
After a second, Bonecrusher let out a sigh of relief. "Oh thank-"   
  
*THUMP*  
  
The table was now bereft of the eight ball, the sound of it rolling out of sight through the tubes of the table running through everyone's ears.   
  
Pain and suffering cut through Bonecrusher for the briefest of moments, then those feelings were shoved out of the way by the twin emotions of anger and denial. "That game was rigged!"  
  
"I play nothing but straight games here!" Ohtana declared, waving the shot glass he had been cleaning in Bonecrusher's direction as though it were an accusing finger.  
  
Two steps placed Bonecrusher within arm's length of Stick. "I say the game's rigged, the old hag ain't really blind, and I'm not paying." He looked down at the old woman, who had remained exactly in the same spot as when she had shot the ball, daring her to refute him.   
  
Stick placed a hand inside of the pocket of her pants and came out with a pipe that seemed longer than what should have fit in a normal pocket. The moment the pipe touched her lips, smoke began curling from it. For several seconds she inhaled the smoke, then exhaled. The smoke that came from her mouth floated above her head, and seemed to Bonecrusher's eyes to form a sinewy dragon, complete with a smoky version of billowing flames. He admired the smoke creature for several seconds, until it drifted into his face and caused him to cough several times.   
  
"Tell you what I'll do," Stick said to the now incensed man. "Double or nothing that I can take you down in two strikes."  
  
Bonecrusher's anger temporarily left him as disbelief muscled in on the sudden turn of seemingly good fortune. "You're onUFF!"  
  
A pool cue found its way into his gut, driving the wind out of him. As he doubled over, the butt end of the stick struck him in the head, rendering him unconscious as his form sprawled out across the wooden floor, right on top of the place where he had spit no more than a couple of minutes ago.  
  
"Never try to teach granny how to suck eggs, sonny boy." Stick took Bonecrusher's wallet out and collected the new amount that was owed to her. She tossed the wallet back down on his chest. No one in the bar understood how she knew what the right amount was, but no one questioned how she was able to do it either. It was just accepted as being the normal way of things.   
  
Ohtana ordered a couple of his employees to see to it that Bonecrusher was left in an alleyway several blocks away. There were already enough drunks in the alley next to the bar anyway. They wouldn't want the additional company.   
  
"I'm taking the private room," Stick announced as she pogoed on her pool cue towards the back where the small private pool room was. Ohtana had it set aside for special events, like when people of dubious distinction chose to engage in private games of chance. The room was expensive, and no one was allowed to use it unless they left a deposit first. Except when it came to Stick, who got to use it whenever she felt like it. Ohtana had always complied with her wishes, unwilling to risk getting on the diminutive woman's bad side.   
  
There had been one occasion where someone had protested Stick's use of the room, claiming he had scheduled it first. The way Stick handled the disagreement discouraged any others from protesting about time conflicts. The upside to that was, after that (and several other) incident, no one screwed around with the bar if they knew Stick was in residence. Unless they were unaware of her reputation, like Bonecrusher. But they learned in the end. Eventually they always did.   
  
Perched atop her cue, Stick waited in the pitch darkness for her visitor. She had told him to meet her by eight o'clock this week, and, thanks to techniques beyond most others understanding, she knew he had several minutes left before he would be late. He always enjoyed cutting it close.  
  
Just as she was about to mark him as late and prepared an appropriate reprimand, a subtle shift in the area alerted her to his presence. He would come through the back entrance, like he always did, trying to avoid any obvious connection between her and the masked crimefighter, but there was always the concern that someone would evade his heightened senses and observe the two of them talking. But Stick had assured him she would rather be associated with Daredevil than Mousse, attorney-in-training at large. Lawyers had such filthy reputations, after all.  
  
Stick used her own heightened senses once again to probe the room and beyond. There were no irregularities, and no one was close to the thick door to the room, or hiding near one of the walls. Even if there had been an electronic surveillance device, she would have felt it -another trick she had learned over the years- but there was still nothing. Their area was secure.   
  
She could hear the sound of a window opening on the second floor as he silently made his way to the back passageway and down to the rear exit of the room. It took him only a moment to get to the room, his robes rustling slightly, a very loud noise to Stick.  
  
"You cut that closer than usual," she said as Daredevil closed the door behind him.  
  
"I was busy. There was a brain-dead wanna-be supervillain I had to deal with," he said as he stood across Stick, keeping the low table set up in the middle of the private room between the two of them. "By the way, I found a use for that 'Bridge Is Out' sign I was carrying around. And you said it was just a waste of space."  
  
Stick cared little for the tone of voice Daredevil was using with her, a tone that had made its presence known all too often of late. At times his pride was a good resource for him to employ, as long as it was kept in check. Allowed to run loose, it could possibly result in some kind of fatal consequence. "Just because you've mastered the hidden weapons techniques, don't assume you can keep the world in your hands, though your upper limits are impressive."  
  
"You're just jealous because I'm better at it than you ever were."  
  
She was upon him in an instant, before he could react in spite of his heightened senses. One solid blow from her pool cue and he was hurled across the room, his flight stopped by an impact into the far wall. The anger Stick held seemed to disappear as she hopped over to where he had landed. The masked man was only starting to regain his footing.   
  
"What was that for?!" he snapped, tensing in case there was a follow up to her attack.   
  
"You needed to be reminded who is the master and who is the student." With that said, Stick shoulders seemed to slump a little as she gave out a tired sigh. "Mousse, Mousse, Mousse. What's gotten into you lately?  
  
He brushed free any dirt his red costume might have picked up from his unceremonious flight. As he spoke, there was an edge of bitterness remaining in his voice. "I don't know what you mean."  
  
Stick thought the saddest thing of all was that he truly didn't know. This moment had been building for some time. She debated whether or not to take the next step on this probably necessary course of action. There was little choice since it seemed unlikely her protégé would come out of it on his own. Over time he had been getting steadily worse, not better. It was time to take the chance. "You're lonely, boy."  
  
"I am not!" Daredevil snapped with an anger inappropriate to the accusation.   
  
Stick suppressed the urge to swat him again; it would do more damage than good. "Boy, you've been lonely since the day I stumbled on you in that shelter for Chinese immigrants." That was only partially the truth. She had gone to that shelter when she had heard someone using a name that she had abandoned decades ago, having embarked on a different life in these lands that were so far from the one she could never have gone back to again. There was an old saying among the Joketsuzoku. When a life can no longer be lived the way it is, then it is time to cast it, and everything related to, it aside forever, so that a new one could be chosen. Ku Lon was dead forever. From the ashes of that dead person's life, Stick arose, and now had an existence entirely of her own.   
  
When she discovered the blind, five year old boy calling out for her, and found out where he had originally come from, she knew it had to be some sort of karma being visited upon her. Two outcasts, so different, yet so much alike in other ways. His past was dead now too, and Stick took it upon herself to help show him the way to a new future instead.  
  
Another deep breath followed as she decided on how to best say what she needed to. "Over the years, I've taken you under my wing, teaching you to harness your heightened senses, make your body strong and your mind sharp. You've learned all the lessons I've taught you save one: how to enjoy life."  
  
"I'm perfectly fine the way I am." The anger in his voice had faded to a hollow echo of what it once held.   
  
"You are far from 'perfectly fine'," Stick corrected. "In the early days, you were able to get by without anyone other than myself as a companion. I had believed that the demons that had been hounding you would be laid to rest over time. To a degree, that was true. You were able to live and function among others with little in the way of problems. You've even set goals for yourself, trying to become a lawyer and even a costumed hero in order to help others. Truly those are noble goals, but in trying to help others, you're failing to help yourself."  
  
Stick could hear his pulse quicken and jaws tighten. "I already failed someone. I'll never fail anyone again. Ever."  
  
Stick sighed. She still was not quite getting through to him. "You have to let go of the past, Mousse. There's nothing you could have done to save your village."  
  
"It's not about that!" he snapped back.  
  
His heartbeat jumped slightly, telling Stick that was only partially true. That was there, eating away at him, but it wasn't the only thing. "Then it's about that Shampoo girl. Listen to me. You were five years old and there was nothing in the world you could have done to change what happened. I searched long and hard for her when you told me what had happened. No one had ever seen or heard of her, and no one has to this day. You know about my connections, if she was still alive, I would have found her. She's gone and you have to bring yourself to let go. Otherwise, this will continued to eat away at you until there is nothing left."  
  
"I have to put it behind me? You're wrong. It's always going to be with me." His voice carried little in the way of conviction. All he sounded now was tired.   
  
There little else she could do for him, so she gave a sad shake of her head. To push harder would only alienate him from her, and he still desperately needed her guidance. "You need friends, Mousse. Friends and someone to love. If you don't, I fear you'll lose everything." She hopped back up on her cue and turned to go. Just as she was about to leave, she paused, then decided to take a chance and reveal something for his benefit. "You're the closest thing to kin I have. I'd rather not lose you."  
  
Daredevil's head jerked slightly. Those were the closest words to affection he had ever heard from her. His mood improved slightly. To have someone that was normally as distant as her say something like that could even cut through the pain of remembering his past. He straightened up slightly, and there was now a strength returned to his voice. "I'll consider your words. Right now I have to go. There are some new legal texts that are coming in and I want to go over them. Same time next week." Without another word he departed the way he had come in.  
  
As Daredevil left Ohtana's bar, he considered his mentor's words. There was a void in him that left him unfulfilled. When he helped others, the pain would go away, but only for brief amounts of time before the loneliness would take command of his thoughts and remind him of his failure with Shampoo. He was alone, save for Stick, and as she had said, he had gotten by with just that, at least until now.  
  
Friends: something he had never allowed himself since that horrible night. Could he afford to have them? If he did have some, and then failed them too in some way, it would break him forever. But what was the alternative? Who was there that could understand what he had gone through?   
  
What was he going to do?  
  
  
The sun broke through the clouds of the clear afternoon. Soun's hand tremblied over the postcard that had come in the mail.   
  
  
Yep. It's that time again.  
  
  
A cry of "Kasumi!" brought her out of the kitchen and into the living room. He called out, "Nabiki!" next, followed by a shout for his youngest, "Akane!" Surprisingly, Akane limped into the room with her cane first, despite having come from the upstairs and being called last. Nabiki still hadn't arrived.  
  
Before Soun could mutter more than, "I wonder where she is?" Akane volunteered to get her older sister. She was certain she had heard Nabiki out behind the dojo.  
  
Sure enough, as Akane passed through the empty hole that had once held a koi pond (It has still been early in acquiring her powers when she had flown home and accidentally landed just a little too hard in the pond, cracking its concrete foundation and ruining it. But she was going to fix it someday) and entered the small area of the yard behind the dojo she saw Nabiki was indeed there. Dressed in a black gi, -a color she seemed to favor the last couple of years- Nabiki was standing up, a small log not more than a foot in height before her. Raising her hand to the sky, Nabiki gave a mighty "KIYA!" and brought the edge of her hand down, slicing the log into two even halves.  
  
"Not bad," Akane said, envy biting at the back of her mind as recriminations about her injury beckoned to drag her down into depression once more. "I thought you hated breaking things with the art, though."  
  
"I do," Nabiki said as she sat another small log on its end and shattered it as well. "I'm only doing this because someone paid me to cut some firewood for them, and it's easier that using an axe." Nabiki tossed the final two pieces of wood into a pile where there were close to another hundred pieces already stacked up.  
  
Akane was offended by the way Nabiki reduced the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts to nothing more than a profit-making scheme. The art was meant to be used for its own sake and to help others and teach them how to use it. At least that was what Akane felt it should be used for. And she would have used it for that too, if she had known anything more than the most basic of moves. When she had been growing up, she had loved learning martial arts. Right after her mother had died, at times it felt like that was all she had, but the car wreck had taken that away from her. Physically unable to advance in the art, her father had instead turned to Nabiki, who was reluctant to learn, but forced to do so for the sake of the family honor. And it was that fact which made Nabiki so bitter at times, a bitterness she was only to happy to share with others, never mind the fact that Akane would have given anything to be able to learn once again.   
  
Some people never learned to appreciate what they had.   
  
Except technically that was no longer true. Now things were different. Akane could not only move effortlessly, but she was nothing less than power incarnate. Whereas before she was about skilled enough in the martial arts to break a pencil, now she was powerful enough to smash a tree into kindling with one blow. Or at least as Thor she could.   
  
Her heart begged her to soar the skies and fly free. How unfortunate something seemed to have come up. Perhaps after her father was finished with whatever it was he wanted to discuss, she could take the opportunity to leave the house and change.   
  
"What did you want?"  
  
Nabiki's question brought Akane back to the present. "Dad wants us for something. He called me and Kasumi too."  
  
"Well at least it's not just about me," Nabiki grumbled as she hopped to her feet and walked back to the house, Akane limping along with her cane and trying to keep up.  
  
Akane arrived in the room only several seconds after Nabiki. Soun looked the girls over one last time. For one of them, their life was going to take a turn for the better. How unfortunate and unfair to the other two girls that Saotome had only one son, else they could have shared in the joy as well.  
  
He cleared his throat and began the explanation. "A friend of mine and his son are coming here today. It's our intention that one of you marries him."  
  
Three simultaneous blinks met him as a response.  
  
Soun cleared his throat once again.  
  
"I said, a friend of mine and his son are coming here today. It's our intention that one of you marries him."  
  
Each girl blinked twice this time.  
  
For one brief moment, Soun was overwhelmed by the resemblance each girl had to their late mother. Many years ago, when he had surprised Kitsune by proposing to her, she had only responded with blinking as well, at least until the third time he asked. Of course, her response of, "Well, I am already twenty-five and not married yet, so I guess it's time for me to settle down and raise a family. Since it doesn't like Ryu's ever going to propose, I suppose you'll have to do," was just her way of covering up the raging torrent of love she held for him.   
  
Really.  
  
And now the girls were going to be just as excited as Kitsune had been since they were about to meet their true destiny as well.  
  
Nabiki lunged across the table and picked Soun up by the collar of his brown gi. "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN ONE OF US IS GOING TO MARRY HIM?!!!"  
  
Yes, Soun thought. Very excited indeed.  
  
Both Akane and Kasumi were of two minds as they watched their middle sister in action.. True, Nabiki was behaving most improperly by threatening their father in such a manner. On the other hand, he did deserve it.  
  
"Father, I don't think that's such a good idea," Kasumi said.  
  
"There's no way I'm going to marry some guy I've never even met!" Akane shouted. The whole situation was ridiculous When she was Thor, she never had to deal with problems like this. All she had to worry about were thugs trying to shoot her for messing up crimes and lawyers trying to serve her legal notices for the property damage that resulted when a fight ensued.  
  
"I've given up my life up for the family's lousy martial arts! There's no way you're choosing who I'm going to marry as well!" Nabiki continued shaking Soun by his gi.  
  
"Nonsense," Soun declared once Nabiki stopped shaking him back and forth. "If I know Saotome, and I do know him well, you'll fall in love with Ranma the instant you see him. You have to trust your father on this. Ranma will be an ideal man."  
  
  
"Nyaaa! You didn't count on my having a shield, did ya' you old hag!" Ranma taunted at the old lady with the water pail that had nearly splashed him. As much as he felt the need to taunt her, he had to admit that he would have ended up soaked had it not been for his shield. At present it was wrapped up in a plain brown wrapper so that no one could see what it truly was and identify him from his brief, televised appearance against the Hulk and the weird metal warcraft that had attacked him. He had taken the precaution of making holes in the back for the straps to hang loose, so he could still use it to guard against water, however. His superior reflexes had enabled him to catch sight of the approaching splash of water and allowed him to bring his shield up in time to block the incoming attack.   
  
"Nice block, boy," Genma said as he crouched behind Ranma, the older Saotome's own version of a human shield. After they walked past the water pail lady, making certain she wasn't tracking them from behind, Genma relaxed and began to talk again. "I've been giving this upcoming meeting with Tendou a lot of thought-"  
  
"And decided to call the whole thing off?" Ranma hoped against hope.  
  
"Don't be naïve, boy." Genma gave his son a comradely slap on the back, setting Ranma's warning senses off worse than ever. "We're still going to meet your future wife. No. What I'm concerned about is the curse."  
  
"Then we're going back to China for a cure first?" Ranma hoped against hope.  
  
"No. There's no time and we don't have any money with which to make the trip," Genma said. "What I'm concerned about is them finding out about the curse. You see, if they see Ranma Saotome change from a large, athletic paragon of heroism into a red-haired girl that is still a paragon of heroism, and then they see Captain Japan and Bucky running around town, they just might put two and two together and your secret identity will be blown. If that happens, then they might let someone else know who you really are, and then your enemies will come after you in your civilian identity. Or worse, they might threaten me as leverage against you."  
  
Ranma gave his father a comradely slap on the back, setting off Genma's warning senses worse than ever. "Not really. You see, pop, there isn't going to be a secret identity problem, since there isn't going to be a secret identity. Neither Captain Japan nor Bucky is ever going to be seen again. It's real simple. No superhero. No problem."  
  
"That's not an option, boy. We promised your mother-"  
  
"No! You promised Mom. I was only five years old at the time and had no idea of what was going on. No one can hold me up to anything I said back then. And it's not my fault I've got that super-soldier crap running through my veins. I am not now nor ever gonna be a superhero." With is declaration over, Ranma relaxed a little. "Still, I gotta agree with you about not letting them know about my curse. I don't want them thinking I'm a freak or something. So here's what we'll do. I'll meet the girls, and after we get rid of this whole stupid marriage mess thing, we go back to China, I get a cure, and we go back to mom and explain to her why me trying to become a superhero just ain't going to work out."  
  
Genma's eyes fairly gleamed with anticipation. "Fine. We'll go to the house then." And once inside, his fate would be sealed. Ranma would be engaged to one of the girls, eventually they'd get married, and maybe someday Ranma could reveal to his wife his dual identity as Japan's foremost superhero. It was a perfect plan. There was no way anything could go wrong.  
  
  
"No, and that's final." Nabiki crossed her arms to emphasize the point.  
  
"One of you will marry him. I am your father and will not be denied this." Soun managed to maintain a bold posture. The unusual show of spine set the three girls on edge. Especially Nabiki, who recognized it as the same look she had received when he had announced that she would be the one to carry on the family's school of martial arts. At least this time there were three possible scapegoats, instead of just her.   
  
Thinking quickly, Nabiki said, "Akane should marry him. It's not like she's been dating anyone. So that solves her little problem."  
  
"No way!" Akane was disappointed by Nabiki's turning on her. Disappointed, but not surprised. "Just because I'm not dating anyone doesn't mean I should have to marry him."  
  
"With your attitude towards guys? Oh please," Nabiki rolled her eyes, hoping her father would listen to reason and give the Ranma boy to someone else.  
  
"What you say does makes sense," Soun said as he focused his gaze on Akane.  
  
Akane began shaking in anger. She should have seen this coming too. "I see how it is! You're feeling sorry and trying to pawn him off on 'the gimp' because she can't get a date!"  
  
In response, Nabiki shoved Akane, knocking her from her cross-legged sitting position to one on the floor. A gasp escaped both Soun and Kasumi as Akane got back up and grabbed Nabiki by the collar of her gi, just as Nabiki had done moments earlier to her father.  
  
"What the hell was that for?!"  
  
Nabiki grabbed Akane's wrist and twisted, forcing her to release the hold. "That was to prove how sorry I feel for you. Don't give me this 'everyone pity me because I have a limp' crap. It doesn't work on me. You have plenty of guys after you, but you keep ignoring them or pushing them away."  
  
Akane moved closer, getting right up into Nabiki's face while making sure not to actually touch her. "I have no idea of what you mean."  
  
Nabiki began counting on her fingers. "Let's see. How many guys have tried to pay me money to fix them up on a date with you? There's Hiroshi. Daisuke. Yoshi. Tetsuo-"  
  
"They're all just boys!" Akane snapped as she started to involuntarily blush, though it was masked by her anger at the whole situation. "I hate boys."  
  
"I'm certain this Ranma is a man among men," Soun said, hoping to calm him daughters down.   
  
"Well if he's mature, then Kasumi should marry him. She's always going on about how she likes mature men." Akane officially turned the tables by pointing at her oldest sister.   
  
"This is true," this time Soun's gaze turned to Kasumi as he considered her as Ranma's prospective bride.  
  
Kasumi was caught off guard by the sudden turn of events. It took her a moment to compose herself and say, "But you said this boy is only sixteen years old, Father. I doubt if he's very mature, and there's such an age difference."  
  
"Mr. and Mrs. Godai are happily married and she's older than him by about three years." Akane pointed out, satisfied that her father's attention had drifted to another target.  
  
Seeing her father's brows knit further in consideration, Kasumi realized she had to move fast. "But the purpose of the marriage is to unite the two schools. Since Nabiki is the one that's studying martial arts, I think it would be ideal for her to marry him."  
  
Sweat began pouring from Nabiki's brow as she realized the tables had now been turned on her and her father was now seriously considering putting her up for sale. Her mind raced as she contemplated how to make him reconsider one of the other girls. Before she could give any further gems of wisdom about making Akane being the perfect choice, there was a knock from the front door of the house. Soun got up to answer it, leaving the sisters to discuss matters among themselves.  
  
Akane and Nabiki glared while Kasumi opted for a more fretful look. No words were needed as a mutual 'No Way!' was communicated among the girls in the manner that only sisters that had grown up their whole lives together could employ.  
  
They were still staring at one another, not bothering to look up, as Soun entered the room with two visitors. "Girls. I want you to meet my old friend, Genma Saotome and his son, Ranma."  
  
All three sets of eyes, two of them half-lidded and one a bit frightful, turned to see the target that had already been dubbed, 'The Guy Someone Else is Going to Marry.'  
  
Three sharp intakes of breath followed as said eyes widened in surprise at the sight before them.  
  
He was a five foot eleven inch, two hundred and twenty pound youth that was more man than boy. A broad chest and powerful arms and legs could be made out even under the loose red and black Chinese style outfit he wore. Handsome features and black hair tied into a tiny pigtail completed his look.  
  
Nabiki was the first to recover. Okay, so the guy was a hunk. That didn't mean she wanted to marry him. He was probably as dumb as a brick anyway. "Well, Akane. Ranma looks pretty manly to me."  
  
That shook Akane out of her stupor. Fine, so the guy was rather large and not entirely bad-looking. That meant he was probably as sensitive to other's needs as a rock, and not at all understanding and kind the way Dr. Tofu was. "Hey, Kasumi. He looks pretty mature to me."  
  
That shook Kasumi out of her own reverie. It was true he did appear quite mature for his age, at least physically, and he was a bit taller than her even though he was younger, which was nice, but he was still only sixteen years old. Even if she had not been dating lately, that didn't mean she wanted an arranged marriage. "He does appear very powerful and is most likely very proficient at martial arts, doesn't he, Nabiki?"  
  
Ranma looked from one girl to the other as each spoke in turn, saving them the problem of formally introducing themselves. Listening to the girls go on about his characteristics, Ranma realized he should have anticipated this happening. It was so blatantly obvious that he could scarcely believe he overlooked such a basic fact.  
  
Of course if they had the opportunity to marry a hunk like him they were all going to go along with it.  
  
He internalized a sigh as the girls began to get louder as they lauded on about all of his irresistible qualities.   
  
"So which one do you want, Ranma?" Soun asked as he waved his hands towards his still arguing daughters.  
  
Ranma wanted to shake his head since he had no intention of actually marrying any of them. Still, he didn't want to hurt their feelings either, and he had to say something to get both his father and Mr. Tendou off his back. It took him a couple of moments to come up with a plan of action which would relax the girls while not singling out any one of them out, or worse, lead them on.   
  
Listening to the characteristics each girl seemed most interested in, Ranma replied, "I'd have to say that Akane appears very womanly, Kasumi very mature, and Nabiki very powerful as well."  
  
The girls broke off their conversation and blushed at the compliments. Although, deep down inside, each felt a little disappointment that he had not singled her out as the best and most obvious choice, even if they had no intention of marrying him.  
  
"All too true," Soun said as both he and Genma nodded their heads in approval. Their plan to unite the families was proceeding just as they had hoped. "They're all perfect choices. No matter which one you choose, you'll be a happy man. So which one is it?"  
  
Ranma began to sweat a little. He hadn't thought they'd be quite this pushy. They seemed intent on not even giving him a minute of rest. "Well, since they're all so, ahh, wonderful, that makes the decision tough." Ranma placed his hand to his chin in mock thought. "Since this is going to affect me for the rest of my life, it ain't the sort of thing a guy should rush. So I'm going to take a little time to decide."  
  
"Of course, of course," Genma said soothingly, proud that his son was at last living up to his responsibilities. "You can have until tomorrow."  
  
Or several years, or even never Ranma thought to himself. Let his father talk all he wanted. There was no way he was going to be making any decisions tomorrow. Or the day after that or the day after that or even the week after that. If he waited long enough, the problem would take care of itself.   
  
Wouldn't it?  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
  
Sorry if this seemed a bit abrupt of an ending for the chapter, but what is to follow is going to follow seemed a bit to big to add on to this chapter. Hopefully will get to it before too long.  
  
D.B. Sommer  
  
  
  
  



	4. The Masks We Don't Really Have to Wear

Avenging   
Chapter 4  
  
The Masks We Don't Really Have to Wear  
  
  
An Ranma 1/2/Avengers (the superhero group) fusion  
  
All C+C is craved for  
You can contact me at: sommer@3rdm.net  
  
Standard Disclaimer: Hell, no. I don't own any of the characters  
  
Avenging is being kept at:  
  
Doug's Archive at:  
http://www.theisp.net/pages/catman/  
  
Slashley's page at:  
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Shrine/5747/  
  
And my own page at:  
http://angcobra.jumpfun.com/dbsommer.html  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
  
Again Ranma had to ask exactly how he had allowed himself to get roped into the whole fiancee mess. It hadn't taken long, that was for certain. After only one night in the Tendou household, his stress level had tripled, and it was not as though he had been all that laid back since acquiring his annoying curse. Having two fathers breathing down his neck, trying to force him into making a decision he was never going to make, only added to it. And then there was the additional problem with his father trying to exert even more pressure on him to become some kind of ridiculous superhero. It was all so stupid. A lesser man probably would have broken down under such a tremendous strain, but not Ranma Saotome. He was made of far sterner stuff.   
  
Even five near splashes of cold water in or around the house weren't enough to make him panic. Circumstances had forced him to use his still wrapped up shield to block most of the thrown of water, and that led to Nabiki eventually asking what the item he had under wraps was. Now that had been temporarily taken care of, although somehow he had a feeling she wasn't going to buy the 'lucky hubcap' story he had made up on the spur of the moment. Admittedly he should have had a cover story planned in advance for such situations, but he wasn't as devious as his father. That meant there was now something else he had to worry about, especially since Nabiki had seemed to have taken an unhealthy interest in his shield since then. He was going to have to keep a closer eye on her, lest she discover the embarrassing connection between himself and the short-lived heroic 'partnership' of Captain Japan and Bucky.  
  
And to top it all off, he was being forced to go to school once again. Not only had he always disliked such places, but he had to leave his shield behind as well.   
  
"I feel like I lost my best friend," Ranma sighed as he stared mournfully at the arm that usually bore his metallic protector.   
  
"What was that?" Akane asked.  
  
Ranma looked down from the top of the fence he was walking on. His father had informed him earlier that Nabiki and Akane were in the same school that Ranma was going to, emphasizing how Akane was even in the same grade and that meant the two of them had something in common. That led to both the girls being elected to escort him to and from school. It was something of a mess. When they were leaving that morning, Ranma had overheard the two sisters fighting over who got to take him. The matter was quickly settled by Soun, who that it was only fair that both should accompany him. With that settled, things had led to their current situation.  
  
Ranma had to sigh to himself. Not even under their roof for more than twenty-four hours and his presence was already causing arguments in the household. He only hoped no one would hold it against him when he figured out a way to duck out of the engagement. The longer the girls fought over him, the more resentment they'd probably have towards him when things inevitably ended as they would. He would have to give the matter some more thought. Maybe in the middle of his classes. That was always a good time to think about things.  
  
"Well?" Akane asked again.  
  
That brought Ranma back to the present. "I said I can't wait to get home," he lied. He was a bit irked that he had to slow down for Akane and her bad leg, but even at his worst he wasn't insensitive enough to complain out loud about it. And it wasn't as though Akane had any choice in the matter. But whether it was her fault or not, it was still annoying.  
  
Akane shrugged, then looked over at the scowling Nabiki. That seemed to be a permanent feature on the middle sister's face since the announcement about the engagement. Tough luck. Akane wasn't taking the bullet for Nabiki no matter what. It would be best to simply get Nabiki engaged to Ranma quickly. The sooner the matter was settled, the sooner Akane's older sister could accept her fate and get on with her life. Perhaps there was something Akane could do to draw the two of them closer together. Some common ground that they shared. It only took her a moment to come up with something.  
  
"Hey, Nabiki. When are you and Ranma going to spar to find out who's the best?"  
  
Talk of martial arts perked Ranma up. He was mildly curious to discover how good Nabiki was. There was no chance she could win, of course, but there was an outside possibility she might have a move or two in her repertoire that could hold his interest for a moment.   
  
"Depends on how much he pays me," Nabiki answered. "I don't fight for free."  
  
"Pay?!" Ranma snorted in both disbelief and disgust. "I don't think so. I get into plenty enough fights without having to pay for them."  
  
"And how often do you win?" Nabiki asked.  
  
"Always." Ranma's previous incredulity was replaced with a smirk. He brought his hands around the back of his head and began to whistle casually as he continued to stroll along the top of the fence. He failed to notice the calculating gleam Nabiki's eyes had gained with his boast.   
  
Looking around as he whistled, Ranma made a closer examination of the neighborhood they were traveling through. There was definitely something different about it. "Is this the same way we took to go to school?"  
  
"No." Akane confirmed his suspicions as she moved closer to the fence. "I have a job as a nurse at a small private practice out here. I go there right after school. Nabiki usually tags along. It isn't that much longer than going directly from home to school."  
  
"Oh." So Akane had a job on top of going to school while dealing with her disability the entire time. That was commendable. Ranma figured he would probably drop dead from boredom if he had to go through all of that.  
  
The trio continued along in silence, Akane not knowing what further to say, Nabiki calculating, and Ranma... well Ranma just had Ranmalike thoughts, which fell into a unique category all of their own. Eventually Ranma was forced to jump off the fence as their path left the main street and cut through an open area that was once a playground, though it was currently devoid of any children. A close look revealed to Ranma that the remaining playing structures showed a fair amount of deterioration from being left to fall prey to the elements. Reddish blankets of rust had formed on the jungle gyms, the paint on wooden planks of the teeter totters was peeling, and a host of other small signs on the rest of the equipment revealed their current dilapidated state. It was no wonder the lot was deserted with the decaying feel that seemed to emanate from it. It reminded Ranma of a dead carcass washed up on the ocean shore.  
  
The trio were halfway across the lot when they noticed a group of people moving towards them from the opposite direction. As the two groups got closer, the trio of students counted five men in matching outfits that identified them as attending a different school. More noticeable was their headgear. Each one of them wore a plain-looking animal mask on his face. The trio stopped as they allowed the masked men to approach, curiosity winning out over caution. It took only a moment for the quintet to size up the trio. At a nod from the man in the oni mask, the group broke apart and encircled the trio, effectively surrounding them and cutting off any avenue of escape.   
  
A man wearing a snake mask stepped forward. "Give us all your precious metals, and you won't get hurt," he said from behind the cheap plastic face.  
  
Ranma cracked his knuckles in anticipation. What a wonderful opportunity had presented itself before him. This was going to be the perfect way to relieve the boredom that had been plaguing him all day. Besides, these thugs were the lowest of the low. It was obvious that Akane had a handicap, yet they were going to rob her anyway. They deserved to have the stuffing beat out of them.   
  
Ranma only managed one step forward before Nabiki darted past him, giving out a cry of anger as she hurled herself directly into the midst of the gang. The first one she targeted was the man in the snake mask. He didn't even have time to react as he crumpled under a single blow to the jaw. The second was a man in a wolf mask, who received a kick to the stomach that doubled him over. Flowing flawlessly from one move to another, Nabiki leaped up into the air and elbowed the one wearing an oni mask, on the top of his head. He was still in the process of falling limply to the ground as she decided to get flashy and executed a double leap kick, knocking out the men in a goat mask and raven's mask respectively.   
  
With all of the others unconscious, she turned her full attention to the only member of the gang left standing: the man in the wolf mask.  
  
Wolf Mask was still trying to catch his breath, and failing, when Nabiki came up to him and shot him a contemptuous glare. "When you and your buddies wake up, remember that this is Nabiki Tendou's turf." She finished him off with a fist to the head.  
  
Not counting the little speech at the end, the fight had taken less than five seconds. Ranma was almost impressed, though he could have taken care of the whole lot of them in less than three. Still, Nabiki did show some degree of skill.  
  
"I thought you only fought when someone paid you?" Ranma pointed out.   
  
"If people in my neighborhood get ripped off, then they won't have the money they need to pay me for my services. Besides, these guys are going to pay me." She bent down and began rifling through the pockets of the unconscious men.  
  
"Nabiki!" Akane cried out in shock when she realized what her sister was up to. "You can't go looting people. It's...it's wrong."  
  
Nabiki fished a handful of yen out of the first gang member's wallet, then moved on to the next, tossing the worn piece of leather on his chest. "Of course I can. Think of it as an object lesson for them. Since they're suffering the anguish of being robbed, maybe that'll make them think twice before trying to rob someone else again."  
  
Akane rolled her eyes and without another word headed for Dr. Tofu's. Her sister was perverting the art to make a quick buck yet again. No amount of talk would persuade Nabiki to do otherwise, and Akane didn't have the energy to try to argue the point. There were better things to do. Besides, it would give Ranma a chance to learn more about one of his two potential fiancees.   
  
  
The Mask Gang recovered consciousness at the same time, long after Nabiki and the others had left the playground. A series of groans and joints cracking greeted them as they regained their feet and tried to assess the damage they had suffered.  
  
"Damn that Tendou bitch," Oni Mask moaned as he felt the top of his head. A large lump had already formed and was threatening to get bigger.  
  
"If she hadn't caught us off-guard, we'd have had her." Snake Mask's bluster lacked any real emotion; everyone knew it was nothing more than an effort to save face. Even if they had been completely prepared for her and had a month to train, the result still would have been the same. They knew Nabiki Tendou by reputation and would never have been stupid enough to challenge her had they realized who she was in advance. There was no way five street punks like them could take her on and hope to come close to victory. The only saving grace was that no one had seen them lose so easily.  
  
"You boys look like you didn't fare to well. Why don't I give you a helping hand?"  
  
All five members turned in surprise in the direction of the sound of the voice. Where there had been nothing but air a moment ago, there was now a man leaning easily against a nearby jungle gym. Given that the whole area was nothing but open ground for a hundred feet in each direction, there was no way he could have sneaked up without someone seeing him. But none of them had, and he was there all the same.  
  
The quintet examined the man carefully, not so much concerned that he might be potential prey, but to make sure he wasn't going to attack them too. He appeared Japanese and wore a very nice, formal-looking black business suit. The fit was impeccable and helped to accentuate the man's figure. His hair was plain black, and hung past his shoulders. His eyes almost appeared closed, though they all knew the man was watching them as close as a hawk does a field mouse spotted from high above. There was a smile plastered on his face, a soft, almost mocking grin, one that seemed to be permanently there, as though he knew the punchline to a joke that no one else in the world knew. He had an odd looking staff with him, held lazily in his arms, though none of the gang believed for a moment they would be able to take it from him. There was something about it that told them instinctively it was as much a part of him as his arm.  
  
"What can you do for us, mister...?" Goat Mask trailed off.  
  
"You may call me Xellos, if you must use a name. Just Xellos." The man bowed formerly, and for just a second, they thought they saw his eyes open wide towards them, half hidden by his bangs.  
  
Then the strange man smiled, and all of the members of the gang suddenly felt afraid. However, it was a momentary fear, one that passed as quickly as it came. "AS to what I can do for you, oh I can do so much for you. So very, very much. How would you like to defeat that young upstart that so unceremoniously defeated you?"  
  
"She's too tough," Raven mask complained in a nasally whine.  
  
The strange man gave a toss of his head, then gave a smile directly towards the speaker that did nothing to put the man at ease. "With the right sort of help, you'll be able to defeat her as easily as you would a child. You'd like that, wouldn't you?"  
  
"Yeah," Snake Mask said slowly. Instinctively, he knew he shouldn't trust the stranger, but the lure of possible power, and regaining their lost pride, was too much. Besides, they needed to put the impudent bitch in her proper place. If the stranger had a way of doing that, then so be it. It would be worth any risk.  
  
"Then we have a deal." Xellos stepped forward and held out his hand. It took a moment for the group to figure out what the man wanted: a handshake. They were a bit taken aback by the foreign gesture, but did as Xellos wanted. Each of them took a turn shaking his hand. Once the last member had done so, Xellos stepped back so that all could see him clearly.  
  
Xellos began to give his orders. As he spoke, the gang stares of suspicion became those of reverence as they began to hang onto his every word. "Here is what you will do. Come this time tomorrow, you will ambush Nabiki Tendou and hurt her as badly as you want. I personally don't care what you do with her. Maim her. Rape her. Kill her. Just make certain it all happens in the presence of her younger sister."  
  
"Who's her sister?" Raven Mask asked, his thoughts becoming cloudy as he found himself trusting Xellos increasingly by the second. How could he have ever thought the odd man intended to do anything but assist them on their holy quest for vengeance? He was their salvation. Almost like a god, when one thought about it.   
  
"The girl with the cane," Xellos explained, his Japanese features shifting slightly, not that any members of the gang were capable of noticing it any longer. The only thing they remained aware of was the need to obey their leader.   
  
"How?" Oni Mask asked. "Tendou's tougher than us."  
  
Xellos smile now nearly took up half of his face. "With these." He held out five masks for the gang members so that they could see them. Curiously, there was a version of each animal or demon that the Mask Gang already had, although the newer masks were far more intricately detailed than the cheap plastic faces they used to scare people. The craftsmanship was far beyond anything the group had ever seen. As Xellos drew nearer with the masks, the gang members could tell the items were carved out of wood and seemed to radiate an aura that beckoned them closer. Each man took the mask that corresponded with his own. As one they took off their old masks and placed the new ones on their faces.  
  
  
Xellos' laughter echoed across the entirety of Nerima.  
  
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Silence reigned supreme in the empty boardroom. Empty save, for one person.  
  
Kodachi Kunou allowed her fingers to play along the wooden pineapple inlays that adorned the plush chairman's seat at the head of the mahogany table that was the centerpiece of the main boardroom of Kunou Enterprises. It was a chair she had never been allowed to sit in; that honor had been reserved exclusively for her father and Tatewaki. Just the way they both had wanted since 'women had no place in the deliberations of a financial empire'. But now both were gone, and she was the one left in charge. In charge of a corporation whose vastness few truly comprehended, and fewer still appreciated. It was something Kodachi was only just now starting to learn.  
  
A datapad -of Kodachi's own design- was built into the armrest of the chair. In its electronic memory were lists of phone numbers of anyone of importance. Actually it was closer to everyone of importance. With a single call she could have politicians, famous movie stars, or other industrial leaders jump at the snap of her fingers. The Japanese government itself would go out of their way to help her, considering Kunou Enterprises manufactured almost eighty percent of the JSDF's equipment. And that wasn't including some of the more exotic weapons the special government divisions sometimes used.   
  
In one of their rare moments together, her father had stroked the keypad and told Kodachi that that was the key to true power. It was not so much what you could do, but what you could get others to do for you. And he was right, to a degree. There was power there. So very much power, and all of it resided at her fingertips. And yet it felt like nothing compared to the personal power she possessed when encased in her Iron Rose armor.  
  
Oh, how Kodachi wanted to soar through the clouds once more, to fight another green monster or strange flying vehicle, to feel the exhilaration as she personally took care of matters in a way that only she could. Her father was so terribly wrong. Wrong about that as well as so many other things. That was what true power was all about. Sitting behind a chair and ordering others was something only those that lacked inner power would do. Perhaps on a subconscious level she had realized this, which was why she never felt envy at the 'power' her father and brother had as the heads of the company. All Kodachi had ever really wanted was freedom, and now she had it.  
  
Or almost had it, as Kodachi now found herself in another cage of a different kind. Here she was, sitting in a chair that was designed for the comfort of one who ruled over his subjects, yet it might as well have been a throne made of thorns. She wanted nothing to do with running the company, but there was no other choice. No one else could be trusted with the all-important job of controlling the corporation, and her subordinates relied upon her to ensure they could still make their living. As a Kunou she was better than them, but that superiority meant that she also had a responsibility to make certain the lesser people had the opportunity to better themselves.   
  
And now she damned her responsibilities towards others. It turned out she had not escaped her cage after all. She simply found herself bound by a different set of chains. Chains that were less restrictive, but there all the same.  
  
Kodachi was still scowling at the inlays when her father's personal secretary (or perhaps that was her personal secretary now) buzzed her and announced that Misuharu Ohama had returned and wanted to talk to Kodachi personally. She immediately told the secretary to allow him to enter. Ohama was one of the few members of the board that Kodachi had trusted enough to investigate if someone was preparing a takeover of the company. He was the ideal choice. Not only was he completely trustworthy, but he had always possessed a curious nature. If anyone could get to the source of the problem, it was him.  
  
The elaborate doors to the room opened and Misuharu entered, making certain to close the doors behind him. Curiously, Kodachi could have sworn she heard the telltale 'click' of Misuharu locking them. She wasn't certain if it she had heard it or not, and even if they had been, Misuharu undoubtedly had good reason for it. Perhaps he simply wanted to ensure they were not interrupted.   
  
As Misuharu moved to stand at the far end of the boardroom table, Kodachi swiveled the chair, facing forward so that it was obvious to Misuharu that he had her undivided attention. "What have you uncovered?"  
  
Rather than answering right away, Misuharu spun in a slow circle, taking the entirety of the room in with a sweeping gaze. Kodachi was about to say something about his unusual behavior when he at last turned his full attention to her. "I have some bad news for you."  
  
Kodachi let out a gentle sigh. It was as she feared. "So it is a hostile takeover."  
  
Misuharu nodded. "Very hostile." His hand went into his pocket, and he pulled out a gun. He aimed it directly at Kodachi.   
  
Time seemed to slow as Kodachi found herself staring directly at her own death. She seemed to see everything at once, from the burned out light in the fixture directly above Misuharu, to the glazed look in his eyes as he seemed to be not so much looking at Kodachi, but past her. There was a brief flash from the muzzle of the gun, followed by the loud report of the bullet leaving it.   
  
There was no time for regrets as the bullet cut through to the air, true to its target, and struck exactly where it had been aimed: the center of Kodachi's chest.  
  
There was a loud ring, confusing Kodachi for a moment before she realized that it was the sound of the bullet hitting her chestplate. It was followed by a high pitched whistle as the projectile ricocheted off the thick metal and embedded itself in the wall located to Kodachi's right.  
  
With his eyes still focused in the distance, Misuharu fired two more times. Kodachi finally reacted by shielding her face with her arms, hoping that he didn't realize his bullets had no effect and that he would try to aim higher.   
  
Surprisingly, there was no fourth shot, but rather a dull thud as what sounded like a bag hit the floor. Daring to lower her arms, Kodachi looked over them and saw that Misuharu now lay face-down on the floor. The gun had fallen from his grasp and was on the ground beside him. A gentle wisp of smoke come from the barrel, curling in the air.   
  
It took several moments for Kodachi to recover her wits after the assassination attempt. She might have been a superhero, and at those times prepared for the worst, but in her civilian guise she should have been safe. Why on earth would Misuharu of all people try to kill her? He was one of her father's most trusted friends and had always been gentle and compassionate, as well as loyal to her family. His were among the nicest presents Kodachi received on her birthday. He even had a daughter that was Kodachi's age.   
  
What had just happened?  
  
Slowly Kodachi rose from her chair, fearful Misuharu would suddenly awaken and try to kill her once more. Cautiously and with carefully measured steps, she walked across the tawny-colored carpet and made her way to his fallen form, taking note of the chairs and perhaps a table she could duck behind should Misuharu rise. But there was no movement as she approached him, at last getting near enough to kick the gun away. Still he remained motionless in spite of the activity around him. Kodachi bent low and dared to turn him over. On the white of his shirt, underneath the black vest he wore, there was a blood stain growing in the center of his chest.   
  
It took Kodachi a moment to realize what had happened. A ricochet had bounced off her chestplate and struck him instead. What irony. That was why there had been no fourth shot.   
  
A mixture of relief that he wasn't going to try to kill her again, and sadness that she had inadvertently killed one of the few people that had treated her nicely in her life, made Kodachi recoil slightly. It seemed she was losing everyone who she cared about, almost as though she had some kind of curse.   
  
She was still lamenting both her and Misuharu's fate when she saw his chest rise. It was faint, but watching closely for it, she saw it rise a second time. Kodachi was on her feet in an instant and crossed the room to the speakerphone next to her chair. Her ring finger hit a button that paged her through to her secretary, "Miss... whatever your name is! I need you to call an ambulance right now! Mr. Ohama has been shot in the chest and needs medical attention immediately!" She clicked off the speakerphone, uncertain with what else to say. Death was known to her -Professor Yinsen had all but died before her eyes, died so that she might live- but at least in Chu's camp it had been expected. But this attempt had come out of nowhere, and she wanted, no, needed to know why.  
  
It was difficult, but she pushed the panic from her mind and calmed down. Logic was the tool needed now to determine exactly what had just happened. Misuharu had been ordered to find out if someone was trying to force a hostile takeover of Kunou Industries. He had come back saying that that was indeed the case and then tried to kill her. Why? Was he working for the other competitor? That made no sense. There was no way he could have shot Kodachi and gotten away with it. Everyone would have known he was the only one in the room with her and was guilty of the murder. So why would he throw his life away just to murder his employer?  
  
Blackmail? A possibility. But wouldn't he have shown some measure of regret before trying to gun her down, or at least offered some sort of explanation? He had not done either of those things. On the contrary, he had simply come in and tried to shoot her. Almost mechanically, now that she had thought about it.   
  
Yes. Mechanically. Could someone have done something to his mind and made him act like a robot and try to kill her? It made sense. Kunou Industries might not have had dealings with any sort of brainwashing techniques or equipment, but she knew there were others that manufactured those sort of devices under the table for all sorts of disreputable organizations. Could one of them have sent Misuharu to kill her, leaving the company ripe for a takeover?   
  
The more she thought about it, the more it made sense. Perhaps her father's and brother's disappearances were connected. And now, whomever had removed them was intent on taking care of Kodachi too. If that was the case, she would simply have to turn the tables on her would-be attackers. And the best way to do that might be to show the opposition what they would be up against. Namely, one armored bodyguard that the mysterious figure would have to dispose of first in order to get Kodachi Kunou. Ironically it would mean putting herself in danger in order to provide the illusion of greater protection, but at least she would have a better chance of taking on the opposition directly rather than having some other person she cared about turned against her.  
  
The emergency medical staff barged into the room and went to help the fallen man. Security followed hot on their heels, making certain Kodachi was all right and protecting her from any further attacks. The fuss over her was extreme, but despite the activity, the precise details of her plan began to form in her mind.  
  
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"School still stinks," Ranma stated as fact more than complaint as he made his way across the top of the chain link fence. He was already beginning to fall into a rut, and it was only the second day of school. The way things were going, he was halfway tempted to strike a deal with his father to become a full time superhero if it meant never going to school again. Almost.   
  
Akane and Nabiki were being quiet too, and he found himself wondering if they were feeling any pressure on their end from their father. Yesterday had found Ranma arriving home and his father waiting with an eager gleam in his eye. "Have you chosen yet?" was the first thing his old man had asked, even before a "How did school go for you today?"  
  
Ranma evaded the question as well as he could, but his father kept harping on about it all the way into the night until the older man fell asleep. Well, actually he had stopped after falling unconscious since Ranma clubbed him in the head with his shield. Really, four hours on the subject of fiancees was more than any man could be expected to take. On the bright side, none of the girls had been arguing over him for a change. If they began trying to get him to choose too, he wasn't sure if he was going to be able to take it. He just hoped things would remain as they were until he figured a way out of this particular dilemma.   
  
The events of the previous day had Ranma so wrapped up in his thoughts that he failed to notice the dark clouds that had gathered high overhead. It was only as the clouds gave off a deep rumble that he looked skyward and realized the danger he was in. The telltale signs of tiny droplets began hitting the street, first stages of the watery assault from above.  
  
Overcoming his panic, Ranma spotted a wide yellow awning that hung over a nearby storefront. Without another thought he held his school bag over his head and leaped from the chain link fence to rush towards the protection of the awning. Several larger drops splattered on the knuckles of his hands. Not enough to trigger the change, but more than enough motivation to make him run faster.   
  
In three long leaps Ranma found himself under the awning. As he paused to catch his breath, he noticed that Nabiki arrived at his side, half doubled over and panting far harder than him. He looked back in the street to see the sprinkle had changed to a full downpour. Much to his surprise, Akane not only remained where she was, but, rather than running for cover, held her hands out from her sides and tilted her head back so that she could receive the full force of the shower.   
  
Akane remained in that pose for several moments before turning her attention to her two companions who had sought cover. She looked at them oddly, as though confused as to why they were not still at her side. Ranma noticed the curious look, as well as the smile that preceded it.   
  
"How can you enjoy getting wet like that?" Ranma asked.   
  
"How can you not enjoy it? Akane asked in return as rivulets of water ran down through her hair and over her face. "There's nothing like being out in the rain. It washes you free of your cares and leaves you fresh and rejuvenated." She spun gleefully around in a circle, her bad leg not hindering her in the least.  
  
"Don't pay any attention to her," Nabiki said in a stage whisper at Ranma's side. "She's been like this for months, standing out in thunderstorms and stuff. She never used to do it either. I mean it's really-" Nabiki reconsidered what she was going to say. 'Weird' was the sort of word that might alienate Ranma from one of his two potential fiancees. And having two choices was so much better than just having one. "-kind of neat, her enjoying nature and all. It says a lot about her character," Nabiki finished.  
  
"I hate the rain," Ranma mumbled.   
  
The retort Akane was about to say died on her lips. She wasn't sure why, but there was an odd, tingly sensation coming from somewhere around her. Slowly the sensation became more focused and seemed to come from somewhere behind her. Turning around, she witnessed five figures slip from the concealing shadows of an alleyway across the street from Ranma and Nabiki. Five very familiar figures.  
  
"Didn't you guys learn your lesson yesterday?" Nabiki shouted across the street. She really did not want to have to haul herself out into the rain and kick their butts again. She hated getting wet almost as much as Ranma did.  
  
Next to her, Ranma tensed up ever so slightly as he watched the masked gang from the safety of the awning. The heavy cloud cover had obscured the sun badly enough that it was almost as dark as night. But even with his vision partially affected, Ranma could still see that there was something different about the Mask Gang. The difference was primarily in their postures. The day before, they had moved lazily and with little in the way of the control most fighters possessed. Now there was a noticeable difference. There was a sort of confidence that implied not only did they have more determination, but that they held some sort of power and possessed the skill to use it.  
  
As they drew closer to Akane, she able to make out some of the differences as well. For her it was not so much in their movements, but in their faces. The masks they now wore were far more elaborate and fearsome in appearance. Still they drew nearer, and for the briefest of moments Akane felt afraid. It took her several moments before she forced out, "Getting new masks isn't going to make you tougher."  
  
The head of Oni Mask jerked quizzically in Akane's direction. "What masks?"  
  
The mouth of the masked youth opened wider than a set of human jaws possibly could, showing a set of sharp six inch dagger-like teeth. Red eyes blazed in fury as the face of the mask contorted, moving as though it were real skin and with a musculature of its own rather than the motionless piece of wood it was supposed to be.  
  
Oni Mask was not alone as the other four members began to move forward as well, matching their strides. The sounds of bones breaking and reforming came from under their blue outfits as their bodies seemed to expand and their limbs shifted, taking on more bulk. Like Oni Mask, their facial gear too now seemed alive. Wolf Mask howled with the sound more like that of an animal instead of a man. As the howl reached their ears, the trio felt a wave of terror sweep over them.   
  
Ranma was momentarily confused at his reaction. In spite of the circumstances, there was no way he should have been afraid of a little howling, no matter how bestial it sounded. Yet the cry seemed to reach inside and touch something primal within him, screamed at him that he should flee from the scene.  
  
After her momentary jolt of panic, Akane calmed down only to find herself with a problem. No matter how demonic their appearance was, she could take care of the lot of with one blow as Thor. However, that would mean revealing her heroic identity to her sister and Ranma, as well as the gang. But there was something deep inside her that screamed out for her to change and deal with these seeming inhuman monsters, and it went deeper than the need to defend herself. There was a sense of familiarity about them that made her want to lash out, as though they were her enemies and they deserved to be smited. She was temporarily at a loss for what to do. While she was wracked with indecision, the Mask Gang drew closer.  
  
Ranma made a motion to go out into the street and save Akane from the bizarre foes. Two steps brought him to the edge of the awning before he stopped himself. He couldn't do it. It was the damned curse again. To go out into the downpour would forever ruin any chance he had of maintaining the secret. Everyone would think he was a weirdo, and people would bother him about the whole superhero thing. But the alternative would be to allow Akane to be attacked by the gang. Could his need for secrecy outweigh the blow to his honor and conscience and allow Akane to be victimized?  
  
A decision was made. Ranma took another hesitant step forward when a blur shot out from next to him. Nabiki moved quickly, charging into the middle of the group of masked men and scattering them in one move just as she had the previous day. A satisfied look, capable of being recognized even with their now inhuman faces, passed over each member's visage as they switched their attentions from Akane to Nabiki.   
  
Nabiki leaped clear of the group, striking Goat Mask with a kick to the jaw. Unlike yesterday, his head only snapped back for a moment before he gave her a monstrous grin and lashed out at her. A high leap and she evaded the swing. This also had the result of taking the fight further away from Akane. As Nabiki had hoped, the rest of the gang followed both her and Goat Mask, leaving Akane alone in the middle of the street. The youngest Tendou girl now had a clear path to the awning.  
  
"Take my sister and get out of here!" Nabiki shouted to Ranma as she began working on Wolf Mask while evading multiple strikes from the others.  
  
Ranma remained where he was because of the rain. Akane was only slowly making her way towards him. For some unknown reason she stared longingly at the fray, her desire to join her sister evident even for Ranma to see. He wondered what she could possibly be thinking about; all she could do was get in the way. Matters were further complicated now that Nabiki was in danger, although Akane was still too close to the action and needed to get out of harm's way first. But helping Nabiki would mean revealing his identity just as well. What was he going to do?  
  
An answer presented itself as a huge form, dressed in an oversized trenchcoat with the collar pulled high, and a low, wide brimmed hat, ran up to Ranma and forced an umbrella into his hands. The mysterious figure ran off just as quickly as it had arrived.  
  
Opening the umbrella, Ranma was out in the street in a flash. Without waiting for her consent, he grabbed Akane and tucked her under the arm. There was an initial verbal protest from her that he promptly ignored and leaped off. As he jumped from rooftop to rooftop, he somehow managed to keep the rain from hitting him in sufficient quantities to trigger his curse, despite carrying his burden.  
  
"What are you doing?!" Akane shouted.  
  
"Keeping you out of harm's way." Ranma leaped across a second rooftop and focused on a third near at hand.  
  
"You have to help Nabiki!" The next comment about the gang having become some kind of monsters didn't make it out as she nearly lost her hold on her walking stick. She reaffirmed her slippery grip on the stick and held it as close to her body as she could. Akane decided to keep her mouth shut. Maybe Ranma taking her away from the scene was actually a blessing in disguise.  
  
"I will once you're safe." Ranma's plan was simple. He would take Akane a few blocks away, making certain the bad guys couldn't get her. Then he would go back and help Nabiki in her fight with those creatures. There was no way she could handle them on her own; it would be up to him to save the day. Hopefully, she had enough sense to stay out of their way until he made it back to the fight and took care of the monsters. Fighting with an umbrella was going to be difficult, but a red-haired girl dressed in a Furinkan boy's school uniform was too likely to ruin his secret identity. He was just going to have to tough it out. Lucky he was tough.  
  
They landed on a deserted side street a couple blocks away from the fight. That suited Akane just fine. Once Ranma left, she would duck out of sight and turn into Thor then save her sister. Ranma may or may not have been a decent martial artist, but there was no way two normal people could take on a group of monsters like that. It was up to a hero, no, a goddess like her to save the day. She just hoped Nabiki had enough sense to stay out of harm's way until Akane could get there. Their relationship might not have been the best between sisters, but if anything happened to Nabiki...  
  
Akane shook herself free of such thoughts and limped off out of casual sight so she could change. She would make it in time. She had to.  
  
  
Ranma was almost there. There was only one more roof for him to clear when the trenchoated form that had assisted him earlier leaped up in front of him and prevented Ranma from going further.   
  
"Thanks for the help, pop, but I can take it from here," Ranma said. He would have kept on going, but his panda-father remained in front of him and prevented him from moving forward. "What are you doing?! I gotta help Nabiki."  
  
A sign appeared in Genma-panda's hands. *It's wonderful to see you taking your role as a fiancé seriously, but there's one thing you're forgetting.* He held out a red, white, and blue shield and rising sun outfit.  
  
"I'm not a superhero!" Ranma swung at his father, who leaped out of the way.   
  
Genma-panda waved his sign at Ranma, trying to prevent further attacks. *Think about it, boy. You'd be able to fight a lot better with a shield instead of an umbrella. And you won't have to worry about revealing your curse if you're wearing a mask. Besides, those monsters looked pretty tough. You'll need every edge you can get.*  
  
As much as Ranma hated to admit it, his father had made several valid points. He certainly didn't want to wear the damned costume, and he most definitely was not a superhero, but he did like fighting with the shield and that was the only way he could use it. Not getting wet had a lot going for it too. With his teeth gnashing, Ranma nodded his head in agreement. There was only one other problem. "I can't leave Nabiki alone while I'm changing."  
  
Genma-panda gave a little jig. Ranma was going to be a superhero again. *I'll save her until you get there.* Without another written word he tossed Ranma's shield and costume to him and ran off to help one of his possible future daughters-in-law. Apparently following his son and carrying the shield and costume around in the hopes that an opportunity would present itself for Ranma to take up his proper role as a superhero was paying off. And as a bonus Ranma would be saving his possible fiancee. At last, his son was living up to his expectations. Life was finally turning out for the best.  
  
  
Nabiki found herself forced completely on the defensive. Whatever changes the Mask Gang had undergone, it had changed them from a bunch of pathetic nobodies to a serious threat. They were more powerful, more durable, and were displaying a wide variety of inhuman powers. Goat Mask had nearly broke her in half when he had lowered his ram's head and charged her. She had narrowly avoided being hit by leaping over him. The follow through on his charge shattered the wall Nabiki had been in front of and sent bricks flying everywhere. Much to Nabiki's dismay, Goat Mask appeared unhurt as he picked himself out of the rubble and began attacking again.   
  
And then there was Snake Mask's arms, which had elongated as though they were real snakes instead of limbs. The first time he had done the trick he had nearly managed to wrap Nabiki up in those long appendages. Wolf Mask's ear splitting howls still set off every one of her nerves and made her want to freeze up in panic. It was taking everything she had to keep her manic pace of ducking and dodging, but even with her considerable skills, she was wearing down. It would be only a matter of time before one of her opponents connected with a telling blow and the fight would be over.  
  
Nabiki was looking for an opening in which to flee when her foot a hit wet patch of pavement and she slipped. She had only made it halfway up to her knees when she saw Raven Mask bear down upon her. He kicked out, knocking the hand she was using to regain her footing out from under her and sent her back to the ground. Before she could react, she saw that Raven Mask had drawn his head back and prepared to gouge her eyes out with the long beak that now seemed to actually be his mouth instead of merely being part of his mask. Sending a prayer to the heavens above, she closed her eyes and brought her hand before her face, hoping it would be enough to ward off the blow.   
  
There was a loud thud of something heavy landing in front of her and then silence. Since the expected blow was late in coming, she dared to open her eyes and peek through her fingers to see what was going on.   
  
Before her was a large panda in a trenchcoat, sitting quit firmly on the back of Raven Mask. The gang member had been hit so hard his beak was now fully embedded in the concrete.  
  
*I'm here to save the day.* The panda waved a sign before Nabiki.  
  
The best Nabiki could manage was an, "Uh, okay," at the bizarre sight.   
  
The appearance of the panda seemed to throw the masked monsters off long enough to buy Nabiki the time she needed to recover. Along with the panda, she got to her feet and took up a defensive posture. So far, she had been attacked by a pack of animal men and now had a sign writing panda helping her. It had to be some sort of karmic thing to balance out all of the times she had lamented about her life being boring.  
  
Genma-panda held up a sign before the masked men. *All right. Who's next?!*  
  
Wolf Mask stepped forward and howled.  
  
Nabiki watched as all of the hair on the panda's head stood up and his eyes widened so that she was certain they would pop out of his head. In an instant he was running away, holding a sign over his back saying, *Don't worry. Additional reinforcements are on the way.*  
  
"Great," Nabiki said in familiar dry tones as she returned her attention to her remaining four opponents. At least the panda had taken out one of the bad guys and bought her some time to catch her breath. She probably wasn't going to win, but at least she could hold out a little longer and let her opponents know they had been in a fight.  
  
Goat mask lowered his head and charged again while Oni Mask and Wolf Mask tried to flank her. Nabiki was still trying to come up with a defensive strategy to the trio of attackers when a circular disc crashed into Goat Mask's legs, knocking him off his feet and drawing everyone else's attention.  
  
Seeing the shield circle her way, Nabiki held up her arms in a defensive posture once again. Before it arrived, a masked figure wearing a white and red costume done up with a rising sun across the torso landed next to Nabiki. The figure casually snatched the shield out of mid-air.  
  
"I'm here to save the day."  
  
Nabiki looked her unusual savior over. It was a red-haired girl who stood a good four centimeters shorter than herself. The costume the girl wore seemed a bit loose, and even with the overly large shield on her arm she did not appear all that imposing.  
  
"Who are you?" Nabiki asked.  
  
"I'm Ra-" No. That wouldn't do. Ranma-chan corrected herself. "I'm Cap-" No. That wouldn't do either. It looked like she was going to have to use that ridiculous name. "I'm Bucky," she sighed in semi-embarrassment.  
  
"Lousy name. What did you do, lose a bet?"  
  
Before Bucky had a chance to answer, she brought her shield up and deflected the attack Oni Mask unleashed upon her with his nine inch nails. The sound of screeching as the claws scraped across the shield made Nabiki cover her ears.   
  
"The name wasn't my idea!" Bucky protested as she saw an opening and kicked Oni Mask in the gut. The blow sent the demon skidding across the water-slicked asphalt. "Anyway, we got more important things to worry about than my name. These guys ain't human."  
  
"No kidding," Nabiki said as she ducked under a swipe by Wolf Mask and came up under his guard, connecting with his jaw. She was inclined to leave all the heroics to her impromptu savior -after all, as a superhero it was Bucky's job- but there was something about ducking out on the red-haired girl that rubbed Nabiki wrong. It was an unusual feeling for her, since ordinarily she had no problems with avoiding matters that where the risk outweighed the potential gain.  
  
Whereas before Nabiki had her hands full trying to stay alive under the masked creatures' assault, Bucky was proving herself a far better fighter as she laid into the monsters. Her shield constantly deflecting attacks directed at her as she punched kicked and tossed her opponents around. Though, despite her superior skills, and the fact she was going full out against them, the creatures continued to return to their feet and come back for more. There wasn't the slightest hesitation or trace of fear in them as they continued to throw themselves at Bucky and Nabiki with a variety of attacks that served to keep the duo off balance. Nabiki moreso than her partner.  
  
After several minutes of the stalemate, Bucky realized she needed to change tactics. It appeared the creatures were slowing down a little, but it was hard to say. Even if they were, at the rate they were going, it would take another ten minutes or so to wear them all down. Personally she was at no risk and could defeat them out easy enough, but judging by Nabiki's rasping breaths, the middle Tendou sister was not going to last that long, martial arts or not.  
  
That meant taking a chance as a plan formed in Bucky's mind. She singled out Oni Mask, who continued to slash away at her with his claws. It was hard to admit that her father had been right; trying to go into this fight without her shield would have been made things much more difficult. At least as long as she had to help protect Nabiki.  
  
Bucky faked an opening, hoping her opponent would take the bait and lunge forward with his claws. She was rewarded as Oni Mask charged forward, intent on running Bucky through. His talons were a hairsbreadth away from his opponent's throat when Bucky leaped up and out of the path of the claws. Twisting in mid-air, she not only evaded the attack but ended up straddling Oni Mask's neck. Locking her legs around the throat to maintain her perch, her fingers quickly grabbed the bottom of the monster's jaw, right at the yellow flesh of where the mask should have started, and pulled. At first it felt like skin rather than a mask, but Bucky continued pulling upward. Oni Mask was in such pain that he didn't to use his claws, instead trying to remove her hands from his skin while being careful not to accidentally slit his own throat.   
  
Bucky doubled her efforts and, just as she was about to give up for fear of killing her opponent, she felt the skin take on a wooden texture as all resistance suddenly gave way and the mask came off the gang member as though it had never been attached at all. The abrupt absence of resistance found Bucky unexpectedly thrown from her perch and flying backwards, landing solidly on her back. The blow wasn't enough to wind her, but it had still hurt. As she returned to her feet, she took a closer look at what she now held in her hands. The mask had gone from a fearsome, living oni visage to that of simple wood. A quick look at her fallen opponent showed that he too had reverted to his human form, showing no sign of ever having been a monster.  
  
"I got one!" Bucky shouted over the storm, managing to catch Nabiki's attention. Nabiki took her eyes off her opponent, Wolf Mask, for the briefest of seconds as she felt a surge of relief pass through her. Their inhuman opponents could be beaten.   
  
But not by Nabiki Tendou as it turned out, since, in allowing her attention to drift from Goat Mask, she had left herself open for a charge by him. He connected solidly with her ribs, sending her head crashing against the same wall he had earlier damaged when Nabiki had dodged his first charge.   
  
"Nabiki!" Bucky cried out, making the same mistake Nabiki did in leaving herself open to an attack as well. Wolf Mask was upon the smaller girl, ripping through her outfit and sinking his jaws into her left shoulder. Reflexively, Bucky brought her shield up and the edge of it met Wolf Mask between the eyes, sending him reeling back and whining in pain just like a real dog.   
  
As Nabiki lost consciousness, she wondered how Bucky knew her name, since she couldn't recall mentioning it to the shorter girl. It mattered little, as the last thought that went through Nabiki's mind was that the pavement felt really chilly and wet.  
  
A kick met the spot right between Wolf Mask's eyes, and he went reeling back further under Bucky's assault. Snake Mask tried to attack, but was thrown into a wall for his troubles as well. Just as she was about to launch another attack, the world was suddenly reeling as her very blood seemed to grow hotter. Her hand went to her shoulder, and she saw that the skin around the area that Wolf Mask had bitten her was now a bright shade of crimson.   
  
She returned her attention to Wolf Mask, who was joined by the remaining two members as well as Raven Mask, who had at last recovered enough to pry his beak out of the ground. The quartet looked at each other, then advanced. Bucky tried to come up with some sort of defense, but it was becoming harder by the second to focus on her opponents. They were even starting to blur, much to her dismay. And if that wasn't bad enough, the storm suddenly seemed to pick up in intensity.   
  
Wolf Mask said something in a language that Bucky didn't understand. The redhead tried to throw some acidic insult in his direction, but nothing came to her fever stricken mind. Staggering backward several steps, she saw the group begin to spread out, undoubtedly so they could fall on her at the same time. She was about to risk throwing her shield at one of the men and hope for the best, when a hammer flew from the sky and landed in the midst of the group, sending them flying in all directions.   
  
"Not her again," was all Bucky got out before darkness fell.  
  
  
In the alcove of a nearby building, magically concealed by darkness, Xellos smiled at the arrival of the newcomer from above. "All you need to do is summon the thunder but once, fool," he mumbled under his breath.  
  
  
Thor looked down at the scene of carnage below. There were three people lying unconscious on the ground. One of them was obviously a gang member, now rendered into human form, the other was her sister, and the third was the harlot that had saved the Iron Rose, the emerald hued monster, and herself from that strange attack craft. Seeing the girl triggered Thor's temper once again. That she had to have been saved by a mortal and was now in her debt was infuriating. The only saving grace upon seeing the harlot again was that Thor now had a chance to return the favor and restore her honor.  
  
"It's the Son of Odin!" Wolf Mask cried out as he saw Thor's hammer return to her as she landed on the ground.  
  
Thor looked at them in surprise. Her guise was still relatively unknown to the general populous of Japan. And now that she stared at the group intently, she realized there was something about their faces that was familiar. She took a moment to examine them more intently as she moved closer towards them. "Who are you that speaks with such familiarity towards the God of Thunder?"  
  
The remaining four masked creatures seemed to recover from their surprise and spread out, preventing Thor from hitting them all it once again. Snake Mask spoke before the others. "Surely you remember me, Thunderer. Though my form is somewhat changed, my essence remains pure. I am, after all, your death."  
  
That threat sounded hauntingly familiar. Now that Thor was closer, she could definitely sense the presence of magic on them. Asgardian magic. Still, she tried to associate a name with the faces. They were vaguely familiar...  
  
"The Masques of Hagalla!" Thor cried out. Now she remembered them. They were artifacts of power, ancient even by Asgardian standards, that contained the essence of several of the creatures of Asgard. The Midgard Serpent had been the snake mask's representative, and Fenris was the wolf's. The others escaped her recollection at the moment.   
  
It had been long in the past when they had been employed against him. He had been in Niefflhiem and was traveling with Hogun the Grim and Baldar the Brave in order to locate the White Pearl of the Queen of Algarond. It was on the Plains of Saggoth that he and his two companions were attacked by the five masked beings who had been possessed by the essences in the masks. Later, they had learned that it had been a plan to prevent them from recovering the White Pearl, and the instigator of that scheme was-  
  
A lancing pain shot through Thor's mind as she staggered backward a few steps. It had happened again. She had thought of herself in male terms, though she was a quite obviously a woman and not a man. And why couldn't she remember her past, or at least enough of it?  
  
Further thoughts on the matter were cut off as she was jumped from behind. Ropy things wrapped themselves around her legs and arms, trying to bind her where she stood. The assault on her mind had proved to be enough of a distraction to prevent her from bringing her full power to bear. It took Thor a moment to shake off the effects from the headache and focus on the matter at hand.  
  
Looking down, she saw that it was the Midgard Serpent's host that was attacking her. The limbs of the possessed young man had elongated and wrapped around her, just like a real snake's would. The others seemed content to stay back and allow their friend to fight her one-on-one.   
  
"And now, Son of Odin, it is time to die." The head bent backwards impossibly far, just like his limbs. The jaw dropped and large fangs came into view, black poison dripping from them. Convinced Thor was securely in his grasp, he stopped taking his head back and brought it forward, intent upon sinking his fangs into her neck. Even if he wasn't the real Midgard Serpent, the poison should prove sufficient to kill Thor. And if it wasn't, then he and the others could tear her apart by more conventional means.   
  
Snake Mask brought his head forward and, just as he was about to bite Thor, stopped. Immediately, he began gasping for air as a hand tightened around his throat. Its power was so great that, even as shifty as Snake Mask was, he could not squirm out of it.  
  
Thor continued grasping Snake Mask by the throat as she flexed her muscles, nearly breaking Snake Mask's coiled limbs as he was forced to release his hold on her. "Thou art mistaken if thou believe it takes but an essence of my doom to finish me." She hurled him away, sending his body into a wall. Her chance to catch her breath was brief as she found herself set upon by the remaining three attackers who hurled themselves upon her like the collective pack of beasts that they represented.   
  
Snake Mask returned to his feet, an ache deep in his bones. Thor had not lost any of his strength with the passage of the centuries. Still, the outcome would be different this time. All he had to do was-"  
  
A shield narrowly missed Snake Mask's head. He turned to see the oddly garbed red-haired warrior trying to attack him once again.  
  
"Won't...let...you," Bucky got out as she tried to stay on her feet, though found herself failing as her legs gave out and she sank to the wet pavement once again.  
  
"Very impressive, mortal. There are few that could withstand Fenris's black bite. Allow me to put you out of your misery." Snake Mask wondered about the connection the mortal had to Thor. Who knew? Since the God of Thunder had come to her aid once, perhaps the mortal meant something to her. That the death of the mortal might pain Thor was all the encouragement needed to convince Snake Mask to take the time out to finish the girl.  
  
Snake Mask half slithered/half walked towards the crawling Bucky, unmindful of the punishment his comrades were suffering at Thor's hands. He extended his head and neck once again, bearing his fangs. The mortal's throat simply looked too appealing to pass up. She was going to suffer as few mortals could before she died at the hands of a god.  
  
"Yo! Scaleface! Looky here!"  
  
Darting his extended head around to see who had spoken, Snake-Mask turned just in time to see a warrior, armed with a bow and dressed in a purple costume, launch an arrow at him. The arrow struck Snake Mask right between the eyes. As the projectile hit, it released some kind of gooey substance that engulfed his entire face. He recoiled backward as he tried to remove the tarlike substance enough to free his jaws.  
  
"Sucker," Hawkeye said as she notched another arrow and shot it at Snake Mask. Again it hit right on target, the impact arrow taking him in the gut and bowling him over so that he was motionless on the ground. Hawkeye congratulated herself. It had only taken her three outings before she ran into a genuine supervillain, and it had taken only two arrows to defeat him. Of course, from what the archer had gathered, Snake Mask had been hit pretty hard by the hammer wielding chick. But still, it had fallen to Hawkeye to save the red-haired girl in the odd costume from such a grisly fate.  
  
The purple garbed archer turned her attention to the 'hammer wielding chick'. She debated notching another arrow; the blonde seemed to have the situation under control, what with her bowling all three of the masked men over as though they were tumbleweeds in the middle of a sandstorm.  
  
  
Thor turned her fury to the trio of masked men. The damned Fenris masked one had actually bitten her, though her Asgardian physiology handled the toxin in the bite far better than Bucky's mortal form had. For her it was nothing more than a minor irritation, but one that added to her anger at the foolish creatures for harming her older sister. It was time to teach the Mask Gang a lesson, possessed or not.  
  
As the trio of masked men began to recover, the memory of what she had done the last time to release the possessed people came back to Thor. She went over and grabbed the unconscious Snake Mask and hurled him at the others. Her throw was on target as the unusual projectile had the effect of knocking all of her opponents over and into a rough pile. Thor took a moment to make certain they weren't near either Nabiki's or the harlot's unconscious forms. Convinced the duo were well out of the area of effect, Thor went into action.  
  
"Now, beasts. Feel the wrath of the Goddess of Thunder!"  
  
Thor brought her hammer down on the ground. An instant later, a tremendous lighting bolt crashed down from the heavens and struck the group of masked men.   
  
  
And off in the magically concealing shadows, Xellos began to laugh, barely reminding himself to cast a globe of silence in time to prevent his joyous roar from being heard by the Goddess of Thunder.  
  
  
Caught fully by the unexpected flash, Hawkeye blinked repeatedly until her eyes cleared and she could see once again. The rain was still coming down and splashing on the now fallen figures that had been struck by the lightning. Hesitantly, the archer approached the Thor. "Ah, excuse me," Hawkeye said slowly, making certain not to offend someone that could most likely fry her where she stood. "You didn't kill them, did you?" Hawkeye sincerely hoped not. She would be honor bound to try to bring the woman to justice if that was the case. She wondered which trick arrow she had in her inventory that could take out a goddess.  
  
Thor stared at Hawkeye. She hadn't even been aware of the stranger until he had said something. She looked over the newcomer thoroughly. "Thou needest not worry, sir. They are unharmed. I did use but enough lightning to loosen the enchanted items' hold upon their hosts, who, though far from innocent, did not deserve to be possessed by the beasts so." Thor pointed at the masks, which had fallen to the ground, blackened along the edges from the lightning.  
  
Sir? It took Hawkeye a moment to remember that, as part of her own secret identity, she had bound her chest down and wore a padded costume so as to conceal what sex she was. If people did not realize she was a girl, how much harder would it be for them to uncover her secret identity? Not that it was all that much of a sacrifice for her. She had all but sworn off her femininity after that whole sordid incident with that lying, worthless jackass fiancé that dumped her at the side of the road. It was one of the reasons she had decided to come to Nerima. Rumors placed her 'Ranchan' somewhere in the area. Eventually she'd get around to hunting him down. Eventually.  
  
There were other matters to take care of first. Shaking herself clear of those feelings, she began acting in her 'studly hero' persona. It was easy to do. She just acted the way guys always did. Unleashing the brightest smile she could, she made certain to walk up to Thor the way a man would when confronted with an attractive gaijin goddess. "Nice job there. You handled them like a pro."  
  
Thor was moved a bit by Hawkeye's endorsement. His praise was nice to hear, even if it was well deserved. As to the man himself, his voice was somewhat high, but appealing, in a way. And he filled out his costume quite nicely, especially in the-  
  
Thor wondered where that had come from. She usually didn't think of men in quite that manner. At least she never did as Akane. "My thanks for your praise. In truth, I had fought them before, and though they did catch mineself offguard, th-"  
  
The rest of her speech was cut off as a lightning bolt, ten times the size of the one Thor had summoned earlier, struck the ground nearby. Hawkeye was knocked off her feet, and Thor herself barely braced for the shock in time.  
  
"What was that for?!" Hawkeye shouted, unable to even hear herself as she got back to her feet.  
  
"I didst not summon that bolt." Thor blinked her eyes clear as she saw something had been left behind from the lightning bolt. Tiny lances of electricity began to spark off from the center of where the large bolt had struck, long after all such things should have ceased to be. It took only another moment before a being emerged from the center of the area of impact. He wore ancient style Japanese clothing, light blue and white in color and with what appeared to be a yellowish padded chest piece on his torso. A wide brimmed straw hat rested on his head, temporarily hiding his features. As he raised his head, his face was revealed. He was clearly Japanese, appearing to be in his late twenties, and handsome. However, the most unusual characteristic about him was his eyes; they glowed blue with small veins of electricity flowing from them  
  
He leveled an accusing finger at Thor. "So, the message left for me was correct. I did not want to believe it, but when I felt you summon the lightning, I knew it to be true! You are indeed in my lands, Thor, with neither my permission, nor even a request to be here! Let it be known that the penalty for an Asgardian God of Thunder daring to trespass on my domain, is death!"  
  
The archer felt a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach as she at last recognized the figure that had appeared in the flash of lightning. Clearly it could only be one person, straight out of her own people's mythology, that was challenging the blonde, hammer wielding woman.   
  
Hawkeye suddenly felt very scared as Raiden, the Japanese God of Thunder, prepared himself for a battle of the gods.  
  
  
  



	5. Thor and Raiden Present: Lessons on Why

Avenging   
Chapter 5  
  
Thor and Raiden Present:   
Lessons on Why It's Bad to Play With Electricity  
  
  
An Ranma 1/2/Avengers (the superhero group) fusion  
  
All C+C is craved for  
You can contact me at: sommer@3rdm.net  
  
Standard Disclaimer: Hell, no. I don't own any of the characters. Marvel and whomever Takahashi sold the rights to do.  
  
Avenging is being kept at:  
  
Doug's Archive at:  
http://www.theisp.net/pages/catman/  
  
Slashley's page at:  
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Shrine/5747/  
  
And my own page at:  
http://angcobra.jumpfun.com/dbsommer.html  
  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
The blue corona of energy around Raiden faded as he drew nearer to his Asgardian opponent. Rather than simply vanishing, the glowing force moved from his body and gathered around his hands while more electricity flowed from his eyes, a sure sign that he was losing what tenuous control he had left over his anger. "I warned you never to set foot upon my island again, yet you have brazenly disregarded my warning, all but begging me to come. Well you have succeeded. This trespass will not be forgiven. In years past we have clashed, without a clear victor, conceited one. Now we shall have one last duel and show these mortals that even a god may die."  
  
Upon Raiden's initial appearance, and learning who he was and that he was angry, Thor had intended to apologize and explain that no insult had been intended. But Raiden's arrogant boasts and slurs dismissed that notion. How dare he call her conceited! Just because she was three times the god of thunder Raiden could ever hope to be was no reason for him to behave in such an offensive manner. It was jealousy. He had always been envious of her superiority and handsome features. Several times in the past they had clashed because of his inability to deal with how much better she was than him. Well, that and her dalliances with Kitsune, whom Raiden fancied. But it wasn't Thor's fault that her godly form was so irresistible to the self-proclaimed Goddess of Foxes.  
  
Thor recoiled at that memory. Not the specifics --thankfully those seemed to have been lost-- but there was one disturbing fact that was inescapable: Kitsune had most definitely been female. Very foxlike, but also definitively female.  
  
"But I'm not a pervert!" Thor shouted to herself.  
  
Raiden sneered. "What you are is an overbearing, arrogant, self-centered, egotistical, womanizing meddler that has challenged me for the last time."  
  
The concerns brought on by the contradictory memory were forgotten as Thor prepared herself for battle. Fights were better than trying to deal with such things. You simply fought your opponent with all you had and either won or lost your fight. A good thing for Thor she never lost.  
  
The next exchange the two deities of thunder shared was one of blows rather than words. Raiden connected with a fist to Thor's gut first, moving far more quickly than the larger Goddess of Thunder. A gasp of breath escaped Thor's lips from the force of the punch, but it was far from enough to prevent the retaliatory punch from her as she successfully landed a blow in Raiden's upper chest. The Japanese God of Thunder was sent back several feet from the force of the impact.  
  
The rain seemed to increase in direct proportion to Raiden's darkening mood. "I see that you are as strong as ever, despite your obvious weight loss. I shall not underestimate you again."  
  
"Flattery will achieve naught for thee," Thor said as she charged her opponent. The quick knockout she had hoped for never came as Raiden blocked her incoming blow with a wide arc by his right hand. That left Thor's midsection briefly open as Raiden used his blinding speed to strike his opponent dozens of times. Individually the blows had little force behind them, but the sheer number of hits, and the nerve centers of the body they struck, caused Thor to recoil back. Raiden was quick to follow up with a more powerful flying leap kick that centered again on Thor's chest. This time Thor was propelled through the air and across the street, completely destroying the door of the car that arrested her flight.  
  
"Hah! I am more powerful than you after all. You're already finished." Raiden paused a moment to laugh at his fallen opponent's state.  
  
An uru mallet flew forth from the wreckage of the car, sailing through the air leaving a dull orange trail of energy full of power in its wake. There was the sound of thunder as the hammer struck Raiden full in the chest, driving him back into the wall of a nearby store and through it.   
  
"Finished by you? Mayhap when icicles ornament Surtur's fiery realm." The hammer flew back through the air to its mistress. Thor stood proudly, enjoying her handiwork for a moment before advancing towards the fallen god.   
  
Raiden appeared less self-assured as he pried himself from the wreckage of the store. He had forgotten how powerful Mjolnir could be. But he was not without weapons of his own. Summoning the power of the storms, the rain increased a five-fold, becoming such a torrential downpour that Raiden almost seemed to disappear behind the falling sheets of water. Only the azure glow that still emanated from his eyes was bright enough to cut through the rain and show that he was still there.  
  
With the tempest as its peak, Raiden caused twin bolts of lightning to strike the sidewalk before him. Rather than dissipating, they remained embedded in the remains of the walkway until Raiden removed them. He spun the twin shafts of azure energy, solid in his hands as they would be for no other. "Now we are more evenly matched."  
  
"Only if there are other gods from thy pantheon about to join thy side."  
  
Raiden's lip involuntarily curled at the insult. He gave a battle cry and leaped high in the air. For a moment it appeared as though Thor would remain where she was, but at the last second she leaped back. Raiden's twin shafts of lightning struck stone rather than flesh.  
  
"I see you are not so brave after all," Raiden boasted.  
  
"The mountain never learned to step aside." Thor brought Mjolnir into the pavement, causing a shockwave that shattered even more of the street into rubble and knocked Raiden off his feet. His grip on one of the shafts was loosened, and it went flying well out of reach. Once out of contact with the Japanese deity, it dissipated into thin air.  
  
"Now dost thou understand?" Thor asked as she stepped towards her opponent once again.  
  
In answer to the Asgardian's question, Raiden hurled his remaining bolt of lightning. Thor brought her hammer up, allowing the shaft to strike the head of the mallet. The bolt of electricity was instantly absorbed, neither hammer nor wielder showing any ill effects from the blast.  
  
"Thou dares to use the might of the thunderbolt against the mightiest god of thunder? Truly thou hast lost thy capacity for thought, no doubt due to mine most savage beating." Thor again stalked forward towards her opponent, the advantage clearly hers once again.  
  
  
Cloaked in shadows nearby, Xellos found himself agreeing with the Goddess of Thunder. It had been his dearest hope that Raiden, whom he had warned of Thor's presence through an anonymous message delivered to his castle in the realm above, would prove more than sufficient to finish off Thor. After all, was not the Japanese god fighting within the lands where he had been worshipped? Surely upon his native soil he would be at his most powerful and would easily finish off the Asgardian, but instead the buffoon was managing to lose despite the advantage. Still, perhaps the blame did not lay at the Japanese deity's feet. Could it be Thor was more powerful than before, thanks somehow to the lame mortal he was connected to?  
  
It was time to even the odds, and insure the outcome of the duel. Dropping his cloak of shadows and globe of silence, Xellos cast a spell that caused the ground beneath Thor to sprout moving black tentacles of eldrich energy. The thick, powerful magical appendages entangled Thor's arms and legs, halting her in her tracks.   
  
"What base sorcery is this?" Thor cried out as she dug in and prepared to rip the tentacles from their earthy grasp.  
  
The diversion distracted Thor and allowed Raiden a chance to recover. Seeing the opportunity before him, Raiden shifted the godly energy within his body, causing a blue aura to form around him once again. Mentally forcing the energy from him, Raiden shot forward and into the air, defying gravity as his body flew parallel with the ground like a living shaft of lightning,  
  
Thor had only managed to tear a couple of the tentacles from the ground when Raiden's powerful attack struck her squarely in the jaw. What she had been unable to accomplish yet with her strength, the force of the blow did as her form was broken free from the tentacles grasp and sent sailing through the air just as far as Raiden had flown earlier from the results of her hammer strike.   
  
"As with most braggarts, you caw until forced to coo by one more powerful than you." Raiden rushed forward again to engage his opponent in close quarters combat once more.  
  
  
A small smile broke across Xellos' face. Now this was more like it. Several more attacks like that and the fight would be over. And with Xellos casting spells, Raiden would assuredly have the opportunity to connect with such blows once more.  
  
Xellos' hand began to give off a yellow glow as he prepared a particularly vicious spell that would cause Thor's body to be wracked with intense pain for several moments, when an arrow struck the ground in front of him. The instant the head of the shaft made contact with the pavement, it exploded in fury, knocking the sorcerer off his feet and disrupting his spell. Xellos was quick to recover as he shot to his feet. "Who dares interfere with me?"  
  
Hawkeye blinked some of the water from the deluge out of her eyes as she kept her next blast arrow trained on him. "The name's Hawkeye, pal. I don't know what your game is, but that gaijin goddess over there is in a fair fight and seemed pretty okay to me. That means you're keeping your nose out of this and telling me what's going on or the next arrow goes someplace less pleasant than the street."  
  
Much to Hawkeye's surprise, Xellos seemed completely unconcerned. His fingers made a series of intricate gestures, though they didn't glow this time. "Arrow? I see no arrow. Only a poisonous snake that's lashing out and trying to bite you."  
  
Reflexively Hawkeye looked down at her arrow only to see that the man had spoken the truth. Somehow her shaft had transformed into a green serpent that was even now going from a long, rigid line to a loose wiry thing that attempted to coil itself around her arm. Hawkeye shouted in surprise and tried to throw the creature away, but was too late as it wrapped around her arm and began to slither its way up the appendage. Hawkeye fell to the ground in a desperate effort to pry the creature off her and cast it away.  
  
"Mortals," Xellos shook his head sadly as he watched Hawkeye fumble her arrow around in her hands. Mortals were so susceptible to illusory magics. But the purple-garbed hero would never have a chance to learn the truth of that as the sorcerer's hand glowed crimson, and he summoned the power of a bolt of destructive energy with which to incinerate his foe.  
  
Just as Xellos was about to unleash the bolt, a large circular disk crashed into his wrist, nearly breaking it and causing the blast to fly up into the rainy skies. Xellos looked in the direction the weapon had come from. "This is getting monotonous."  
  
The disc whirled through the air and returned to its owner's hand. "The guy who's going to kick your butt, you squinty-eyed jerk."  
  
Xellos evaluated his opponent. A fighter of some kind. Female and by all appearances powerful, at least by mortal women's standards. That meant she was of no concern. There was no need for Xellos to sully his hands with such a brute. He had made other arrangements. "Somehow, I doubt that."   
  
Xellos widened his hands, creating a glowing golden circle in the air that was three times as large as Bucky's shield. Within it, the redhead could see something moving, as though the circle was some sort of viewscreen instead of just a glowing... whatever it was.  
  
The high pitched cry of Xellos' melodious incantation filled the air as he cried out, "I summon the most powerful of Trolls, he who was once the bane of Asgard and who did nearly destroy even the mighty Thor in personal combat. Prepare for your death, mortal, as I summon he who will rip the flesh from your body and grind your bones into powder. I call forth Ulik The Mighty!"  
  
With the crescendo of Xellos' incantation complete, and one last elaborate wave of his hand, the glow within the disc disappeared and the scene in it became clear. Bucky could see that beyond the edge of the circle was what appeared to be an enormous cavern that was larger than any that could possibly exist on Earth. Stalactites and stalagmites seemed to be as gigantic as small houses, and there was the movement of many squat, powerful-looking orange-skinned creatures within the caverns. The most prominent of these beings was the individual standing right next to the portal; the creature stood about five feet tall and was nearly as wide as he was across. Several golden earrings adorned one of his ears and he wore the thick leathery hide of some creature that served as ragged pants and a vest. He wore no shirt underneath, and Bucky could see a hairy chest dominated by powerful muscles underneath. The being didn't look quite as powerful as the Hulk, but he appeared plenty strong enough.  
  
The creature stepped through the portal and onto the street. He looked around, then proudly announced, "I am here to kick the hell out of someone's ass!"   
  
"So you're the Mighty Ulik?" Bucky said as she prepared herself for a fight.  
  
"No. He isn't." Surprisingly, that came from Xellos, who waved a hand, banishing the glowing portal. He moved in front of the troll, his eyes fully open for a moment. "Excuse me, but who in Hela's deathly realm are you and where's Ulik?"  
  
"Ulik was busy, so he asked me to fill in for him." The troll beat his fist proudly against his chest. "My name is Ulos, The Pretty Damn Powerful. I'm Ulik's little brother."  
  
"I didn't want Ulik's little brother. I wanted Ulik himself," Xellos pointed out.  
  
"Big Bro was in one of his moods and didn't want to come. If you had dragged him here, he'd have probably ripped your arms off for trying to force him to bend to your will," Ulos explained. "But don't worry about it. I'm almost as strong as my brother, and a little faster in the head, if you know what I mean."  
  
Xellos seemed to consider that. "True. Ulik is nearly as thick as the ground that he lives under. How do you feel about killing mortals?"  
  
In response, Ulos pulled out a set of huge metal knuckles from a pocket on his vest. He put them on, then beat them together, producing a shower of sparks and a resounding ring that was loud enough to be heard over the peals of thunder. "Would you like them dismembered, pulverized, or torn in half?"  
  
"Your choice." Xellos indicated the redhead before them was the target.  
  
Ulos nodded in approval. "Right. Easiest money I've ever made."  
  
Ulos moved slowly as he prepared to attack Bucky, amused that all he had to do was kill a single mortal for some quick cash. He would be able to take Alonacha The Most Beautiful out tonight. She had expensive tastes, but would put out at the drop of a hat if one spent lots of money on her. She was exactly the sort of girl a troll could respect.  
  
Almost casually Ulos drew his fist back, confident that the mortal would be too terrified at his fearsome presence to move. So slow was his blow that Bucky was able to throw a punch of her own first, connected directly with Ulos's face. He paused after the blow landed, his own fist still raised in mid-air. Bucky leaped back out of reach to survey the damage she had inflicted.   
  
Ulos blinked. "Hey now, I actually felt that." His face scrunched up in irritation as he moved towards his agile opponent once again.  
  
"Oh boy," Bucky moaned as she prepared herself for yet another titanic battle against a huge and very powerful foe. And to make matters worse, his breath smelled ten times worse than the Hulk's.  
  
  
Raiden rained a blinding series of blows upon Thor. From the moment he had connected with his human missile attack, he finally possessed the advantage in the fight. The sheer number of his blows were wearing her down, and Thor found the pain starting to affect her. Truly this fight with a fellow god of thunder was the mightiest battle she had found herself in since the recovery of her hammer. As painful and difficult as the battle was, there was a certain amount of joy in it as well. As the mere Akane Tendou, she had never experienced the delight that accompanied the knowledge that one was pressing herself to the limit of physical endurance in combat. In that confining past she could only live vicariously through the accomplishments of others, such as Nabiki when she won the occasional tournament she entered, and that caused more envy than anything else. Martial arts had been one of Akane's favorite things before the accident and to be denied that joy for nearly a decade still made her bitter, despite her newfound godhood.  
  
But not at this moment. This was what life was meant to be like. The smell of sweat and blood as the rain poured down and the heavens roared. This was a battlefield, and to the winner would go a richly deserved victory against a worthy foe. It was something Thor desperately wanted to achieve, having tasted so little of it in her life as the much more mundane Akane.  
  
Thor watched as Raiden broke off his attack and instead seemed to leap directly at a wall. For a moment, Thor was confused, until she sensed the buildup of power in his body and realized what the god was planning. Very clever, trying to use the wall as momentum for another one of his human missile attacks. But only if he had been able to sneak it past her, which he wasn't going to do.  
  
Raiden bounced off the wall, glowing blue again as he became a blur and headed straight for his opponent even faster than he had the first time. The increased speed threw Thor off for a moment, and she barely got her hammer up in time to allow Raiden to crash into it instead of her own immortal form.  
  
The impact sent Raiden back to the ground, the god somehow managing to land on his feet. A second blow from Mjournir sent him flying backward again and into a fire hydrant. The geyser of water that shot into the air was only slightly more powerful than what was coming down.  
  
  
Xellos watched in disgust as the red-haired girl punched Ulos in the jaw again. The battle was going poorly for the troll. He might have been lighter and faster than his brother, but his speed was nothing compared to that of the mortal girl. She was bouncing around faster than a hungry Volstagg looking for food, or Amelia on a sugar rush. And the few times Ulos managed to get close enough to land a blow, the girl's shield would block the blow, the piece of metal somehow withstanding the raw power unleashed by the troll. So much for the Ulos, the Pretty Damn Powerful.   
  
Xellos returned his attention to the only fight that truly mattered to him. Thor had retaken the advantage again. It was that damn hammer. Without Mjournir, the tide of battle would shift and it would be Raiden who would have the advantage. Then things would go Xellos' way at last.  
  
Apparently Raiden felt the same way. As Thor attacked with her weapon, the Japanese god struck the Asgardian in the arm, forcing the hammer from her grasp and making it fly from her hand, several feet away, causing a small splash as it landed in a pool of water that had formed in a basin formed from the wreckage of the street.  
  
Having put everything into disarming his opponent, Raiden let himself open to a counterattack by Thor, which consisted of a meaty fist impacting with his jaw and sending him to the ground. Seeing her opponent stunned for a little while, Thor ran over to regain her hammer. As she bent down to retrieve it, the weapon seemed to melt into the earth, as though it were immaterial and gravity had taken over. Looking down, she could see no opening, nor even crack, to indicate that it had fallen into a hole; the hammer just seemed to have vanished.  
  
Xellos smiled when he saw the panicked expression on Thor's face. He snickered aloud as the goddess wailed in impotent rage and smashed her fist into the street, shattering even more of the pavement in an effort to retrieve her weapon. It was a waste of time. Xellos' magic would ensure that it remained out of her grasp for the duration of the fight.  
  
Shaking his head clear of pain, Raiden saw Thor bent over, smashing the street up for some reason he couldn't comprehend. Her reasons mattered little to him. Now he had an opportunity for a free shot at his foe, and it was one he would not pass up. He formed a shaft of pure electricity in his hand, similar to the ones he had wielded earlier. Seeing Thor had yet to return his attention towards his opponent, Raiden moved quickly.  
  
Centuries of battle-honed senses made Thor look up at the last minute, just in time to partially brace herself for the impact of the blue staff as it struck in the center of her chest. Without the immunity to lightning conferred by Mjournir, she felt the full effects of the weapon that knocked her to the ground and stunned her, leaving her at the mercy of her opponent.  
  
Mercy was not the first thing on Raiden's mind, falling somewhere after 'Making Thor into tiny pieces that aren't recognizable as being organic material anymore.' Centuries of the wrongs the Asgardian had inflicted upon him, from romancing his love interests to claiming Raiden was nothing more than the 'God of Light Dew,' all bore down on him and powered his arm so hat he would smite Thor with a blow that would end once and for all their rivalry.  
  
Just as the staff was about to hit, the blue glow emanating from it highlighted Thor's features as the Asgardian lay on the ground, staring at Raiden while preparing himself for the blow. For the first time since the fight had begun, without a battle rage, darkness, or rain obscuring the distance between them, Raiden saw Thor, truly saw the Asgardian, for the first time.  
  
"You're a woman!" Raiden gasped as the staff's course was arrested directly above Thor's prone form.  
  
Whereas Raiden was surprised by Thor's current gender, the goddess was not as she rose to her feet and smashed Raiden in the face with powerful fist. Sensing a clear advantage, and the opportunity to finish the overlong duel, Thor attacked again, relentlessly driving the Japanese god back with each blow, not giving him the opportunity to recover. Every fist and kick met solidly with flesh, swelling Raiden's right eye shut, splitting his lip, bruising his ribs, and giving him a host of other minor injuries.   
  
She drove her opponent to the ground, deflecting what pitiful attacks he could mount. The punch she had hit him with while he stood in wonder at her gender --which was most peculiar since he knew very well what it was-- had obviously been the telling blow in the conflict. She almost felt sorry for him having left himself so ridiculously open, but it really was his own fault. A true warrior needed to be prepared for any eventuality.  
  
The near slaughter went on until at last, Raiden, his wide hat having long since been knocked from his head, looked through his swollen eye as he found himself hoisted in the air by his collar, too weakened to resist. Thor was smirking at him as she --and it truly was a she-- boasted, "Truly a magnificent duel, but at last it must draw to a close."  
  
Raiden firmed his resolve to meet his fate with his eyes open. He saw Thor nod once, perhaps in honor of her foe, and draw her free hand back. Just as the fist reached the apex of its arc there was a flash of light, and Raiden found himself no longer suspended in mid-air. Instead he fell, Thor having released him. His beating had been so severe that he landed on his posterior rather than his feet. His godly stamina quickly allowed him to recover enough to regain his footing, only to discovered that his opponent had vanished, the Goddess of Thunder now replaced with a young Japanese girl, who seemed to be looking at her hands in surprise.  
  
A quick glance around showed no sign of either a male of female version of Thor around. All that remained was the girl. He listened to her say in shock, "Why did I change back? I didn't tap Mjolnir again, I didn't even have it in my hands, so why I did I change?"  
  
The words sent Raiden's mind racing. There was a trick he had learned, from a mortal mage of all people, that enabled him to see auras. Narrowing his vision, Raiden squinted at the obviously mortal girl and saw the multitude of auras that surrounded her. After a moment's pondering, he believed he figured out what had happened and smiled inwardly. This was going to be good. Shifting his vision back into its normal spectrum, he approached the girl with a slow but steady stride.  
  
The girl cowered back at his approach, but almost as though sensing it would do no good, stopped. Her jaw set itself with steely resolve as she stood as proudly as she could, despite only reaching the height of Raiden's chest.   
  
Raiden gave her a menacing glare, saw her flinch a little, then smiled. He was barely able to contain his mirth as he said, "This new form of yours is disgustingly appropriate, oh Goddess of Thunder. I now give you permission to operate in my lands at your leisure. I will raise my hand neither to oppose nor assist you. You shall meet only silence." He turned to leave, but then gave one last glance over his shoulder towards Akane. "As much as I am inclined to doubt it, perhaps you will actually learn something from this ordeal, but I would not bet on it."   
  
Laughing, Raiden summoned a bolt from above that struck the ground with only the softest of sounds. It remained where it was, extending down from the clouds above. Raiden shot one last, derisive smirk towards the girl, then placed his hand on the bolt. It instantly began to retract, taking Raiden along with it until it disappeared into the clouds again and took the god out of sight. The moment he disappeared, the storm seemed to abate somewhat, becoming half the elemental force it had been but moments before.   
  
"What did he mean by that?" Akane wondered aloud.  
  
  
A frown creased Xellos' features as he watched Raiden fly up to the clouds on his pole of lightning. How dare that arrogant Japanese god refuse to be manipulated by him into killing Thor! That arrogant popinjay was going to ruin everything. It had taken Xellos nearly three weeks after learning of Thor's predicament before he was able to come up with a plan to eliminate the god-become-goddess without his hand showing in the machinations. Recovering the Masques of Hagalla had taken nearly two months on their own, and now it was all about to come to an end with that damnable Thor coming out of it none the worse for wear.   
  
But there yet remained one way of salvaging everything and still be able to pin Thor's demise on Raiden. The air was still tinged with the duo's battle, and even Thor's mortal form would still be charged with Raiden's unique godly magics. Xellos' hand glowed blue as he magically prepared to summon a blast of electricity to complete the job Raiden should have finished on his own. Death by lightning. Assuming Odin or some other god investigated the demise of Thor, they would immediately assume it was the Japanese god of thunder's work and would seek vengeance upon him rather than the true culprit. Xellos' hands would be clean of any wrongdoing. He aimed his hand at Akane's unprotected back. It was perfect.  
  
Or it was perfect right up until the moment a powerful hand clamped around his throat from behind and threw him hard into a wall, disrupting the spell. Xellos turned in anger toward the figure that had molested him. "Who do you think you are laying hands upon me?!"  
  
"You know who I am."  
  
Xellos' eyes widened in disbelief for exactly one second before a back fist caught him across the face. The blood roared in his ears from the blow. He loathed physical combat to the extreme. He never was one to withstand much physical punishment, and the blow scrambled his thinking enough to prevent him from casting any kind of spell. Instead, he began babbling, trying to buy himself some time. "Now wait just a Urk!" Xellos found a very long and very sharp blade poised at his throat. "Can't we talk this out, Sif?"  
  
"Enough talk, trickster." The tall dark-haired goddess, who stood a good six inches above Xellos, spat as she kept the blade pressed against his flesh nearly hard enough to draw blood. "Should thou attempt to cast even the simplest of enchantments, I would be more than pleased to part thy head from thy shoulders. And unlike when Balder last did it, I should be mindful to make certain that thou dost not have enough left of thy body to reattach it to."  
  
"Very well, you have my complete and utter attention," Xellos promised.   
  
Sif's blade remained where it was. "Thou dost know the All-Father's edict that none of the Realm might interfere in the current matter involving Thor. Any who do would find themselves in direct violation of that order and would be punished most severely. Even those that are considered of royal blood, Lo-"  
  
"Please call me Xellos for now," he quickly interrupted. "I wouldn't want it to get out who I really am, and you never know who might be listening. Some that know me in this form might not take kindly to my real identity."  
  
"I care nothing of thy devious schemes," Sif said contemptuously. "But let me assure thee that no matter what punishment Odin would give, mine would be a thousand times worse. Death be not the end, as thou well know, and if thou wouldest dare to raise even the slightest finger against Thor, thou wouldest be marking thy moments till the end. Thou would not be counting for overlong."  
  
Seeing the look in Sif's eyes, Xellos decided that he had better things to do with his time than to continue plaguing Thor. The trickster enjoyed his life more than he hated the God now Goddess of Thunder, especially since he found that fun group or mortals to play with in that other dimension. Besides, being a woman was truly a fitting punishment for the oaf, as well as being cursed to be mortal at least part of the time. And since Thor apparently was at least partially mortal, who was to say some other accident might not befall him and end his annoying existence while leaving Xellos' hands clean? Yes, many bad things happened to mortals, and there was no reason to believe Thor was immune to such possibilities. Xellos could live with keeping an eye out to dance on Thor's grave should such a time come.  
  
"Time to go." Xellos was annoyed to discover the blade still pressed against his throat.  
  
"Release Mjolnir," Sif reminded him.  
  
"But of course." With a wave of the hand, Xellos canceled his spell. There was no need for the goddess to worry; once he departed, the spell's effects would have ended on their own anyway.  
  
Finally Sif removed her blade from his throat, while keeping it ready to wield against him should it be necessary. But it was not, as Xellos formed another glowing disc in mid-air, this one leading to an open field in some far-off countryside where no buildings were immediately present. Xellos stepped halfway through the portal before turning to confront Sif once again.  
  
"One question."  
  
Sif cocked her head quizzically at the man she trusted the least in all the universe. "Yes?"  
  
There was true curiosity in Xellos' voice as he asked, "Why did you choose to interfere now and save Thor's life when he so unceremoniously dumped you without a second thought all those years ago? One would think you would want to see the oaf get his comeuppance."  
  
A look of anger crossed Sif's face, though whether it was from the question or the memories that would have undoubtedly have been dredged up by it he could not determine. "My love for him is not dependent upon his love for me. I am not so petty as to wish to see him harmed because of the events that transpired between us."  
  
Xellos' gave a sad shake of his head, and for once seemed genuine in his emotion as he fully opened his eyes. "Such ridiculous sentimentality. It pleases me that I have never fallen for this detrimental feeling others term love. It gets them into far more trouble than I ever could, even at my best." With that declaration, Xellos turned back to the glowing gateway and entered with a flourish of his cape. Once inside, the portal collapsed after him.  
  
Sif stared at the residual glow until it vanished, then turned her attention back to the street. Even from her position in the side alley, she could see the lame mortal discover the enchanted walking stick among the debris of the street and caress the wooden staff in ways that reminded Sif of a much taller man who had caressed her with much the same affection. Who could tell what remained of her beloved and what did not? Only the All-Father knew for certain, and he had made it clear he would tell no one what the truth was.   
  
The goddess turned to leave, fearful of what she might do if she remained. She only hoped the one she still loved would weather this trial somehow, even if it meant they would never be rejoined.  
  
  
"Stand still, you hopping rodent! Ow!"  
  
"Wow! Even with all of this rain you still stink like five day old roadkill. Do you have to try to smell that bad, or does it just come naturally to you?"  
  
"When I get my hands on you, mortal, I'll show you foul odor when I force you to eat your own dung! Ow!" Ulos shouted again as Bucky darted in again and struck him in the nose with her fist. The fortieth time she had done so without him laying a hand on her. The few times he came close with his attacks, the damnable little gnat kept blocking it with her shield, which refused to give under his blows. What was the thing made of anyway?  
  
Another blow connected with Ulos' stomach this time. This was becoming ridiculous. Here was he, Ulos The Pretty Damn Powerful, being made a fool of by a flimsy little mortal. And a female one at that. If Ulik ever found out, Ulos would never hear the end of it for the next millennium. He had to figure out a way to end it fast.  
  
Bucky felt pleased with the way the fight was going. The poison from Wolf Mask's bite had long since faded and now she was kicking the ugly guy's butt, although it was taking a while to do it. Still, she was winning. Her fight against the Hulk had served her well, even if she hadn't exactly won that (but Bucky would be quick to point out she hadn't lost it either). It had taught her how to fight a MUCH larger and stronger foe, especially one with the IQ of a pea. This Ulos character might have been a bit smarter than old Greenskin, but all the other rules applied. Ulos wasn't anywhere near as strong or as powerful as the Hulk. Only his fighting skills were better, and they weren't enough to counter the hit and run tactics Bucky was employing. Slowly she was wearing the ugly guy down. With her super-soldier enhanced body, she would outlast him easily.  
  
She threw her shield at him again, and though it caught Ulos in the face, he managed to bat it down with his hand. Upon seeing her weapon lying on the ground, the one she kept hitting him with quite effectively, he picked it up, smiling at his opponent the entire time. "Now I'll show you what I intend to do. First I'll break the shield, then I'll break you."  
  
"Don't try it or you'll be sorry," Bucky warned.   
  
"Ha! Your pitiful attempts at saving your weapon will avail you nothing." He held the shield in two hands, then brought it over his knee in an effort to snap it in half.  
  
"ARGH!" he cried out as it felt like he nearly shattered his shin. The shield fell to the ground as the Rock Troll hopped up and down, holding his leg in pain.   
  
"Toldya so." Bucky smirked as she hopped up and down while holding the same leg as Ulos.  
  
"Die!" the troll shouted as he forced himself to fight through the pain and charged forward. He was going to grind her into paste and then give the remains to a Bordargua.  
  
Bucky waited until the last second before leapfrogging over his head and allowing him to continue on through with his charge right into a light pole. The force from the impact severed the pole in two, Ulos draping his form across the bottom half of the shattered insturment of light.  
  
The part that still had a bunch of live wires that had been ripped open..  
  
Ulos was shocked for nearly ten seconds before his body jerked hard enough to break the connection. He stood up, then stated boldly, "That didn't hurt."  
  
A thrown shield struck him right in the face.   
  
"That did." Ulos's eyes crossed.   
  
"If you thought that was something, wait until you get a load of this." Bucky leaped up into the air, bringing her fist back as far as she could. It was time to end it all on one of the newer techniques her father had made her learn in his efforts to create the 'Heroic Icon of Superheroism' She shouted, "Saotom...err, Bucky Anything Goes School of Superheroic Combat Final Attack: Haymaker From Hell!"  
  
The redhead connected with a mighty roundhouse right to Ulos' jaw. Much to her amazement, the troll stood there. He laughed, then fell face forward to the ground.  
  
"Yeah!" Bucky gave a 'V for Victory' sign with her fingers as she stood over her fallen foe. A clean victory. It felt good. Real good, especially with how miserably her fight with the Hulk had gone. The five idiots in the masks she could have taken if Nabiki hadn't...  
  
Nabiki.   
  
That errant thought reminded Bucky of who she had been protecting in the first place. After looking around in a panic, the masked heroine found Nabiki lying on one of the few unbroken portions of the street, along with the five members of the Mask Gang. All of them appeared unharmed, save for a little singeing upon the various members of the gang. Bucky considered them lucky for getting off that easily.  
  
The fallen girl's breathing seemed regular and besides a few bruises, appeared fine. Gently, Bucky sat the unconscious Nabiki up. "Nabiki," she said softly.  
  
Nabiki's eyes remained closed.  
  
"Nabiki," Bucky said even more gently.  
  
Still, there was no response.   
  
"WAKE UP, DAMMIT!" Bucky shouted as she shook Nabiki like a rag doll, but still there was no response. The redhead was going to try to revive the girl by slapping her in the face until something about Nabiki's behavior beforehand stuck in her mind. Looking through a small pocket sewn into the waistband of the costume, Bucky fished out a ten yen coin. She held it up in the air, then dropped it.  
  
The instant the coin hit the pavement, Nabiki's eyes flashed open. "What was that?" she said panicked as her head darted back and forth --and felt for her money pouch-- as she tried finding the source of the disturbance.  
  
"Some debris falling over," Bucky said quickly as she grabbed the ten yen piece before Nabiki spotted it. The redhead might not have been the cheapskate her father was, but she was not the sort to give money away without good cause.  
  
That statement made Nabiki look more closely at the world around her. Her eyes widened as she saw the condition the street, and many of the adjacent buildings, were in. "Did I do this?!" she shouted out, panicked.  
  
"No, no," Bucky assured her.  
  
Nabiki's whole form seemed to slump from the built up tension. "Thank god. That means no one can sue me for this."  
  
Bucky began to sweat at that. Could a superhero be sued for trying to serve the public trust and save lives? That seemed wrong in some way, but who knew. Then her eyes turned to the fallen Ulos. Oh well. They had a decent scapegoat, at least. "Are you all right?" she finally asked Nabiki.  
  
"I think so."  
  
"You sure?"  
  
"Absolutely." Nabiki sat up and moved around a bit, only a few aches and pain from the bruises she had endured at the hands of the Mask Gang. Slowing her down "See. I'm fit as a..." Nabiki trailed off as she saw Hawkeye hurtle past in a life and death struggle with her arrows. "Okay. Maybe I did get hit in the head a little hard."  
  
Bucky stared at the archer's odd behavior. "Hey! Aren't you supposed to use a bow to shoot them instead of throwing them arrows around by hand?"  
  
The question intruded on the illusion and snapped Hawkeye out of her panic. She paused, and in so doing, reexamined the 'snake'. She couldn't believe it. Her shoulders slumped as the energy seemed to leave her body. But that lasted only a moment as anger began to fill her. "That guy must have done something to my mind and made me think my arrows were snakes. That jackass!" she seethed.   
  
Bucky flinched. There was something about the way the archer said that that scratched at a memory in the back of her mind. She looked the superheroes over more closely. He didn't seem familiar. "What's your name, pal?"  
  
Hawkeye was taken aback by how intently the redhead in the odd costume was looking at her. Still, as somewhat rude as the question was, they had saved each other's lives, and taking offense at that would seem a bit uncalled for. "The name's Hawkeye."  
  
"Hawkeye," Bucky said slowly. No way! It couldn't be him. That was too much to believe. It had to be a coincidence. Before Bucky could think more on the subject, another person approached, her manner indicating some degree of agitation.  
  
After discovering her walking stick amongst the rubble of where it had melted into the street before, she had moved as quickly as she could behind an overturned car and hid. Given how terrible the storm had been, it was unlikely anyone had seen her change from Thor to her more mundane form. But now that the storm had abated somewhat, there was a chance someone would spot her if she tried switching into Thor once again. So she hid, making certain no one was around as she pondered her situation. Why had she changed back? It made no sense. The only thing she could figure out was perhaps it had something to do with Mjolnir. It had been swallowed by the ground, and she had been out of contact with the hammer for a short length of time. That seemed to make sense. Since she had first stumbled onto the power within the stick, she had always kept it with her, especially in her godly form. It sounded like the most likely probability; some sort of restriction on the enchantment.  
  
Now came the second important question: could she change back? Her heart raced as the possibility of losing her godly form and its power reared its head. Giving a cursory look around to see if anyone was watching her, she tapped her walking stick into the ground. In a flash of light, Thor, Goddess of Thunder, walked the Earth once again.  
  
"Praise the All-Father," Thor softly intoned as she made certain every part of her was there and that she had suffered no ill effects from the previous forced transformation.   
  
Satisfied she was in perfect health, she turned her attention to other concerns. Such as the condition of her sister and the others that had been present at the start of the fight. Almost immediately she spotted the trio of people talking together. As she drew closer, she saw that the red-haired harlot was examining the one called Hawkeye closely. Too closely for Thor's tastes. A bit startled by the anger in her breast, Thor stalked towards the redhead.  
  
Bucky could feel the hostility radiating from the goddess, and tensed up in response.  
  
Thor stood next to Bucky, placing herself slightly between the redhead and archer. "Thou should keep thy tempestuous ways to thyself, harlot."  
  
Bucky was confused by the accusation. Did the goddess think she was coming onto her in some way? They hadn't said two words to one another since the fight started. "What's that supposed to mean, Sore?"   
  
"Mine name is Thor!" she corrected loudly and with a wave of her hammer.  
  
Hawkeye couldn't understand why the two were suddenly so angry with one another. In an effort to placate them, she gave them her winningest smile and said, "Look, we've just been through a really tense situation here. Let's calm down and talk rationally amongst ourselves."  
  
Bucky was basically unaffected by the gesture and just spun on her heels and crossed her arms. Thor was more easily swayed. Truly this Hawkeye had a most dynamic smile that served to put the goddess in a good mood. Since the archer was trying so hard, Thor let go of her anger, and said, "Very well."  
  
Since Thor seemed to relax somewhat, and having no desire to continue an argument she hadn't started, Bucky said, "Okay. I have to get going anyway." There was a limited amount of time she had in which to get her normal clothes back, get some hot water, and come up with an excuse as to why Ranma Saotome had not made his way to the fight in time to help Nabiki like he had said he was going to do.  
  
"Ah, I have other appointments as well." Thor hurled her hammer in the air and followed its passage by hanging onto the leather strap that hung down from the weapon. She had to turn back to Akane and be waiting for Ranma and Nabiki when they went to get to find her.  
  
"I suppose I ought to hit the road as well," Hawkeye said. She had intended to go out on a brief afternoon patrol right after school to blow off some steam, but the battle had taken a while and it was starting to get late. She had to get ready for the evening crowd at her cousin's restaurant that she worked at. It was a pity she was so miserable at okonomiyaki style martial arts that her father had refused to give her a loan to start her own restaurant, but being a super hero was cool and realistically ate up too much time to allow her to run her own business anyway. She had her hands full just trying to keep up her grades, work, and go out on nightly patrols. But it was a juggling act she was determined to keep up for as long as she could.   
  
Nabiki watched the three heroes depart and sighed. That had been a complete waste of time. She was beat, her clothing torn, and now she had to find Ranma and Akane. The only useful thing that happened was meeting those superheroes. They seemed relatively nice, even if they had been a bit destructive. Although now that she thought about it, there was something about them that was nagging her. She was pretty sure that Bucky girl had called out her name, but Nabiki had forgotten to ask her how she knew it since Nabiki hadn't given her name. Could she really have been someone Nabiki knew? Now that sort of knowledge could be useful.  
  
The wheels of Nabiki's mind began turning as she went to find her sister and boy who would never be her fiancé.   
  
  
The rain had finally stopped as Bucky found her father waiting for her several blocks away. One costume change and kettle of hot water later, Ranma was back in his uncursed form. Now it was time to discuss how to solve the final problem with his father.  
  
Ranma finished up saying, "So you see, Pop. I need a reasonable excuse as to why I wasn't there in time to help them."   
  
*I agree wholeheartedly,* Genma-panda signed.  
  
Ranma's eye took on a sinister gleam. "I think I've got something. How about we say I got jumped by a sixth member of the Mask Gang?"   
  
*Sounds reasonable,* Genma-panda agreed.  
  
"A panda."  
  
*Works for me.*  
  
"And I beat him up, which was what took me so long."  
  
*A terrible plan boy. They'll never buy it.*  
  
"Oh, I think with a little 'proof' they'll believe it." Ranma cracked his knuckles for emphasis.   
  
Genma-panda backed away in fear. *Wait a minute. Let's put our heads together. We'll come up with something else.*  
  
Ranma continued to stalk menacingly towards his father. "Now come on, Pop. Aren't you the one that's always going on about how there's no sacrifice too great for me becoming a super-hero?"  
  
All Genma-panda could do was whimper about traitorous sons who knew no concept of honoring their fathers. Though later on, he was able to live with the consolation that when Ranma showed Akane and Nabiki his mud covered form (from the pounding into the soft earth he got courtesy of his son), which they mistook for a brown bear, they believed his son's story and didn't arouse their suspicions. The trio had departed, leaving Genma's animal form wallowing in the mud. It was undignified, but it had worked just like they had hoped.  
  
And when all was said and done, Genma found himself hoping Nodoka appreciated the sacrifices he had undergone. Being a superhero's sidekick was tough work.  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
  
The man sat back on the lounge chair, enjoying the rays of the sun beating down upon him. Truly that travel agent had been correct when he claimed this Rio De Janeiro beach was magnificent. He had been here nearly two weeks, enjoying the delights this city had to offer: both those that took place during the daytime and those that could only be done during the night.  
  
But now something had happened to disrupt what was otherwise a luxurious vacation. Somehow, someone had tracked him down and delivered a telegram to him. To his knowledge, no one knew where he was vacationing. And yet still, there was the telegram before him. His eyes looked over it once again, their enigmatic words filling his mind.   
  
  
My Old Comrade.  
It is with great pleasure that I inform you that I am back among the world of mortals. I know I have been absent overlong, but am feeling well and ready to renew our friendship, which I pray will grow in new directions. I will let you know that I have undergone significant changes, changes that I hope will spur a change in our longtime relationship and make us closer in ways that it could never be before. I am now based in Nerima, Japan, and look forward to seeing you once again.  
  
--Thor Odinson  
  
  
Truly an unexpected event. Rumor had it something happened to Thor while he was in Asgard a while back, and no one had heard from him since. There was a lot of speculation as to what might have happened, from some sort of disfigurement, to a scorned woman, to some kind of law broken for which he was on the run. He asked around, but had been unable to uncover any precise information. Though he and Thor were friends, and at time rivals, they were not really all that close, and since he had other important things to do, and Thor had not been gone for more than a hundred years, a virtual eyeblink for immortals, he pushed the thunder god's absence from his mind and went back to the thing he enjoyed most: living life to the fullest.   
  
But now Thor was back, and it was just the sort of thing to liven the his day. It would be good for the two of them to reunite and make many more memorable events between them. Thor was always good for a round of heavy drinking and the occasional wenching. Sometimes a friendly fight or two. He wasn't as good as the man was at it, but then no one was. It would be good to hang out with a fellow immortal once again. Yes. Thor would be in his near future.  
  
Just as he was about to get up and arrange flight reservations, Hercules eyed several shapely forms saunter down the beach, one of the vixens lowering her sunglasses as she walked past, obviously basking in his godly presence. As he got up, he decided he would visit Japan once he was done with a few more parties. Then he could meet his old comrade-in-arms and they could renew their association once again. There were such things as priorities, after all. But soon he would head out for that little island in the Pacific.  
  
Very soon.  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
In a dimension not so far away, Xellos laughed long and hard. True, he had promised to not meddle in Thor's affairs anymore, and in the best interest of his health he would do so, but it had been impossible to resist causing that little inspired bit of trickery, and all it had taken was a telegram. Maximum effect with a minimum of effort. Truly it was one of his better works. And it wasn't as though this encounter would prove physically harmful to his moronic step-brother, sister, sibling, or whatever term now applied. Who knew, perhaps the Goddess of Thunder would enjoy the company of her old comrade in arms.  
  
Yeah, right.   
  
Xellos burst out laughing again.  
  
"What's so funny?" the short red-haired girl that was standing a few feet away asked.  
  
Xellos turned to her direction, opened his mouth, then placed a single finger to his lips and said, "That is a secret."  
  
"Ohh, I hate it when you do that!" Lina stomped off without another word.  
  
And Xellos continued laughing in amusement.   
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Little shorter than the others, but it was a good place to end it. Going back to work on the next chapter of 'Should Acquaintance' next, but am planning to come back to Avenging after that. Hopefully will keep this up for a while.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	6. Weighty Matters

Avenging   
Chapter 6  
  
Weighty Matters  
  
An Ranma 1/2/Avengers (the superhero group) fusion  
  
All C+C is craved for  
You can contact me at: sommer@3rdm.net  
  
Standard Disclaimer: Hell, no. I don't own any of the characters. Marvel and whomever Takahashi sold the rights to do.  
  
Avenging is being kept at:  
  
Doug's Archive at:  
http://www.theisp.net/pages/catman/  
  
Slashley's page at:  
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Shrine/5747/  
  
And my own page at:  
http://angcobra.jumpfun.com/dbsommer.html  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
"Too slow, Pop. Maybe you should just call it quits!"  
  
"Never, boy! I may have taught you everything you know, but I haven't taught you everything I know. I still have a few tricks up my sleeve."  
  
"Get real, Old Man. If we were really fighting, you'd probably end up breaking one of your bones, then osteoporosis would set in and it might never heal."   
  
"I am not THAT old!"  
  
Nabiki spared a glance towards the fight in the backyard. The Saotomes' duel was closer to an aerial ballet than an act of war, though it featured the largest ballerina the world had even seen. The older man's agility surprised Nabiki as she watched him try to level a leap kick at his son in response to the jibes against his fighting ability. Nabiki noted it was a pretty good effort, one she would have had problems dodging, but Ranma made it look easy as he danced to the left and evaded the attack.  
  
It was not as if Nabiki really cared who won, though if she were running a betting pool, she wouldn't give Genma better than fifteen-to-one odds, if that. The older Saotome might have been good, but Ranma was in a class all his own. She had to remind herself that it wasn't as if she really cared about a guy who was little more than a large side of beefcake, like most of the other girls at school would. There had already been a few questions directed towards her about Ranma's status by the female population of Furinkan. Nabiki had been intentionally vague about him. Odds were he would end up with either Akane or Kasumi, but she was reluctant to be proven wrong should all of the girls get out of the pledge to marry him.  
  
Convinced the Saotomes were too deeply involved in their morning workout to notice anything else, Nabiki quietly made her way through the house and toward her goal. Making certain no one else saw her, she went to the room that had been converted for the Saotomes' use. Quietly she opened it, revealing all that was within.  
  
The object of her search was there, out in the open, lying against Ranma's backpack as if recently handled. All the more proof that Ranma had been full of it.  
  
"Lucky hubcap my foot," Nabiki mumbled. What sort of gullible twit did Ranma take her for? A story like that might have fooled her father or even her sisters, but Nabiki Tendou was made of sharper stuff. Something was up, and her inquisitive nature nagged at her to discover what the mystery was, and how she could take advantage of it.   
  
Since Ranma was being so secretive about his 'hubcap,' it would not do to leave obvious clues that she had uncovered the truth. There was no telling how he would react to the revelation, especially since she didn't know what really was hidden behind the folded paper. Moving quickly, but efficiently, she unwrapped the brown paper from around the object carefully, making certain she unveiled it without tearing the wrap or any of the tape that bound it. After only moments, she uncovered the item, bringing it fully into view.   
  
Nabiki's eyes widened, her mouth agape as she stared at the circular object before her. Of all the guesses she had made concerning the item, from the logical to the absurd, this was truly the last thing on earth she had believed it would be. But there it was, before her eyes, the evidence undeniable. It took almost a full minute for her to recover her wits and choose the next course of action. Part of her was tempted to leave it in the open and show Ranma that she had indeed learned the truth of the matter and was not pleased about it; but common sense overruled her instincts, and she carefully refolded the paper exactly the same way she had found it. Satisfied all was the same as it was before she entered the room, she departed with one last glance of disbelief at the circular object.   
  
It really was unbelievable.  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
"Ha! Told ya' you didn't stand a chance, old man," Ranma taunted at his father as the man rested on top of his head, driven into the bottom of the empty koi pond like a rotund javelin.   
  
The sound of a truck moving up to the rear of the dojo caught Ranma's attention. He was going to see what the disturbance was about when Kasumi emerged from the kitchen and stepped onto the back porch.   
  
"Excuse me, Mr. Saotome. Would it be too much of a bother to ask if you could take a nap somewhere other than the pond? We've finally decided to have the cement in the bottom repaired so that we can fill it up with water again. It should be fixed and as good as new by the end of the day."  
  
Ranma helped pry his father out of the empty pond, examining the size of it for the first time. "Gee, it's not really that small," he commented to his father.  
  
Genma considered the potential body of water as well. "I suppose we could always resort to using the dojo to train instead. It is sort of what it's there for."  
  
"I thought you always said, 'it's best to fight in a variety of different surroundings because they more accurately reflected potential fields of combat you'll likely find yourself in, rather than the staid conditions of an ordinary dojo'," Ranma quoted.   
  
Genma weighed that, then looked at the empty pond. "I suppose we could try fighting next to a sizable body of water. What are the odds of us ending up in it, after all?"  
  
Ranma nodded his head approvingly. "The dojo it is."  
  
The pair decided to call an end to their morning training session and made their way to the bathroom to clean themselves off. After a quick scrub down and a relaxing soak in the furo, the duo returned to their shared room to change for breakfast.  
  
As Ranma tried deciding which set of red shirt and black pants to wear, he sensed more than noticed something out of place about the wrapped disk next to his pack. He bent down and picked up the object, examining it closely. Squinting his eyes, he saw the clue that told him all he needed to know.   
  
"Looks like someone couldn't keep their hands to themselves," Ranma said in smug satisfaction.   
  
"What's that supposed to mean?" Genma asked, genuinely confused.   
  
"Look at this." Ranma held the object out for his father to see. "I thought someone might want to look at my 'lucky hubcap' a little more closely. I wanted to know if anyone would get too nosy for their own good, so I taped a really, really tiny piece of string, that you can't see without knowing what to look for, under one side of a fold and above the one opposite it. When someone undid the wrap on the paper, they untaped the string from one end of the paper. When they redid the job, they didn't tape the string back down."  
  
"Very sneaky of you," Genma said in approval.  
  
"I learned from the sneakiest guy around," Ranma said with a decided lack of approval in his voice. He paused to consider who the likely culprit was. "My bet is it was Nabiki. She seems the suspicious sort."  
  
"An inquisitive nature is always a good attribute for any potential wife," Genma happily pointed out.  
  
"Drop it, Pop," Ranma warned. Now Nabiki knew the horrifying truth, and Ranma's secret was out:  
  
he had taken the time to locate and wrap up a real hubcap to throw people off in case someone got too inquisitive.  
  
It looked like his precaution had paid off. Ranma gazed up at the ceiling, satisfied that string he had put across the tile was still in place, and the item he had hidden up in the crawlspace was still secure. There was no way he was going to let this intrusion in his life slide with Nabiki, he silently vowed to himself. His private business was just that, private. He'd just have to figure out some measure of revenge. And it would start this morning.  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
"Gee, I wonder if I should take my lucky hubcap to school," Ranma emphasized the word 'hubcap' as he looked directly at Nabiki.  
  
Kasumi continued serving breakfast. Soun was looking out at the water filling the koi pond. Genma worried about Ranma possibly alienating Nabiki, a potential future wife. And Akane just thought Ranma was getting weirder by the day.  
  
As for Nabiki, she knew damn well what Ranma was up to. Somehow he knew she had unwrapped his 'lucky hubcap,' and was mocking her about having one up on her. Big mistake. Not only was she going to get back at him for outmaneuvering her and flaunting it, it also served to make her more convinced than ever that something odd was going on with that disc. She'd figure out what it was, but only after she dished out some measure of vengeance.   
  
Her plans were interrupted when the doorbell rang. Kasumi excused herself from serving and answered the door. A moment later she returned, bearing a note in hand. "It's addressed to the dojo, Father."  
  
Soun took the offered envelope and quickly tore it open, eyes poring over the contents. As he finished reading, his hands began shaking. "It's a challenge for the dojo. It says here a sumo champion is going to arrive tomorrow and have a fight to prove clearly whose combat art is superior. It says he'll take our sign if we lose. And it's signed, 'The Duke'."  
  
"Oh great," Nabiki sighed. Another inane challenge. If the pattern followed its usual course, her father would force her to defend the dojo. "Fine, I'll do it," she said, beating her father to the punch.  
  
"And Ranma will help her out," Genma added as he thrust his son towards Nabiki.  
  
"What?" Ranma spluttered as he found himself unintentionally violating Nabiki's personal space.  
  
"A capital idea, Saotome," Soun heartily agreed.   
  
"It's so nice of Ranma to help Nabiki. It'll prove how well they get along," Kasumi said, thinking they did make as nice a looking couple as Ranma and Akane would.  
  
"Yeah, it'll almost be like they're married," Akane quickly added, smiling at this unexpected opportunity to bring the two closer together.  
  
"Now wait just a minute," Ranma started to protest, somehow finding himself not only involved in a fight that had nothing to do with him, but that everyone else seemed intent on pawning him off upon the middle Tendou daughter, who he was currently feeling less than charitable towards.  
  
Nabiki feigned indifference. "Don't worry, Ranma. I'll fight this guy on my own. He's probably very tough and you might end up getting hurt."  
  
"Now wait just a minute," Ranma repeated, this time for a whole set of different reasons. "I didn't say I wouldn't fight. I'd be glad to put some slow, overweight guy in a giant diaper in his place."  
  
"That's my boy," Genma placed his hands around Ranma's shoulders. It was about time the boy started acting heroic without his father's prodding for a change.  
  
"Fine, you can help," Nabiki said, hiding her smile behind her cup of tea.   
  
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Ranma continued his stretching exercises as he prepared for the challenger to arrive. The man was already fifteen minutes late, and the youth was beginning to wonder if he was going to show at all.  
  
The other thing that concerned him was Nabiki. It didn't seem as though she were taking the challenge seriously. Although she was dressed in a stylish black gi with a green and gold dragon on the torso (a bit gaudy, in his opinion) she did not seem interested in the fight at all. She hadn't even begun to warm up. All she was doing was standing idly by, examining her watch every few moments and looking bored  
  
And then he felt it. The land trembled slightly, as though an earthquake was about to begin, but the motion was all wrong; it was too rhythmic, and not causing the destruction associated with that force of nature. It took only a few moments for Ranma to determine that the rumbling was not originating from the earth, but rather from something walking across it, and drawing ever closer.   
  
The rumbling seemed to reach its peak, then in one quick motion the entryway to the dojo slid back to reveal the source of all the noise. A troupe of at least forty huge men, not one weighing under four hundred pounds, dressed in white kimonos, entered the dojo in two ramrod straight lines, maintaining a military precision in their movement. The men flanked two sides of the dojo, then as one sat down in cross-legged fashion. All of their eyes then turned to the doorway. The Tendous and Saotomes followed suit.  
  
And there he was, standing in the entryway, his form momentarily blocked out by the bright glare of sunlight that seemed to rise from behind him. But the burning image faded as the sun lowered behind the wall surrounding the Tendou grounds, and allowed the others to clearly see the challenger.  
  
He was the largest of the men present, standing six feet tall and weighing at least six hundred pounds, dressed in a huge white kimono that could have doubled as a tent. A very wide six hundred pounds. He was more akin to a mountain, or at least a foothill, than a human being. Luckily, the entryway to the dojo was wide, and allowed him to enter without having to turn sideways. But perhaps the most curious characteristic of all was that the man was clearly a gaijin. A Caucasian, to be specific.  
  
"Sorry for the delay," the man said in heavily accented Japanese. "Me and the boys got hungry on the way over and decided to dine at an all you can eat sushi bar. But then the owner keeled over from a heart attack as soon as we entered and it postponed the meal and made us even later."  
  
"You're 'The Duke'?" Ranma asked.   
  
"You got it. Fred J. Dukes, to be specific," the man smiled and bowed, "but I just shortened it to 'The Duke.' Makes for an easier ring intro. Besides, you Japanese guys have trouble pronouncing, 'The Blob'."  
  
"Ring intro?" Ranma asked.   
  
One of the sumo surrounding the floor answered, "The master is the greatest sumo champion ever. He has won every major tournament in Japan and the surrounding countries. He has never been defeated. He even took all of us on and defeated is in the very same day. That is why we refer to him as our master." The man genuflected before his leader.  
  
"Yeah, deciding to come to Japan was the best choice I've ever made," the Blob confirmed. "Being a respected wrestler over here sure beats being a fat man for the circus, or some cheesy super-villain." Of course, given his subtle mutant power was perfectly suited for sumo wrestling, it made winning all the easier. But there was no need for anyone to know about that little 'irrelevant' detail. He was a tough guy that would have won anyway. It just served to speed up the inevitable.  
  
"And now it's time for me to prove to you just how kick-ass sumo is," the Blob bragged. "I've already knocked over a dozen dojos, and yours is next in line. Before I'm done, sumo isn't just going to be the most respected martial art in Japan; it's going to be the only one. Haw, haw, haw."  
  
That brought a resounding cheer from the other wrestlers around the dojo.  
  
Ranma considered that, and found himself respecting his opponent a little more, though not by much. "Heh, buddy, you've met your match this time. Ain't no way some fat guy's ability to bump people with his belly can defeat the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts. You're completely outclassed."  
  
Nabiki moved to Ranma's side. She addressed the Blob, "We might as well get this started. I would assume you don't want to be late for dinner."  
  
"Haven't missed one in twenty years. Have no intention of starting now." The Blob rubbed his belly as he smirked. It didn't make a bit of difference to him if they tried to take him two-on-one. He had fought a whole dojo once and defeated everyone.   
  
"Let's begin," Ranma said.  
  
"Just let me get out of my uniform so I can fight in proper gear." And with that the Blob removed his kimono to show off his 'proper gear'.  
  
According to Greek mythology, there was a trio of sisters called the gorgons of which the most famous was Medusa. It was said they had snakes for hair and that anyone who dared to look upon them would find himself turned to stone from the hideousness of their features.  
  
However, on this day, it was proven conclusively that in the case of some horrifying sights, it was infinitely preferable to be turned into a piece of masonry rather than to go on living with such an unholy vision burned forever in one's mind.  
  
Case in point: seeing the Blob wear nothing but a too tiny g-string.  
  
"I'm blind! I'm blind!" Ranma shouted, covering his eyes. But it was far, far too late.  
  
"This is easily the most traumatic thing I've ever had to see," Nabiki said dryly, though with an amount of disgust that, while more reserved, was equal to Ranma's.  
  
Soun and Genma hugged each another in terror. "This is more horrifying than anything the master did to us!" Soun blurted out,  
  
"Even Volstagg wouldn't look that disgusting," Akane stated fearfully, the others too horrified to pick up on the unusual comparison. Trying to avoid looking, she was amazed to see Kasumi unfazed by the Blob's appearance. Curiously, the eldest Tendou daughter was still looking in the Blob's direction, not seemingly repelled in the least.  
  
"How can you stand to look at... that?" Akane finally got out, trying her best to avoid visualizing again the sight she had just borne witness to.  
  
"It's easy. I know this is just some horrible nightmare that will end when I wake up." Kasumi continued smiling blissfully. "So if it isn't real, I don't have to be frightened by it."  
  
Genma was less restrained. "For gods' sake man, why would you inflict this evil upon humanity?!"  
  
"Get real. I'm hot," the Blob shot back. "Japanese chicks dig us sumo guys. So I figured if I wore something smaller than those diapers they usually wear, the babes would really get turned on."  
  
"Or puke their guts out on the ground," Ranma added.  
  
"You're just jealous cause you wouldn't look as good as me in one of these." The Blob posed in that sexy way that only six-hundred pounders can manage. Regrettably, the effect was lost on all the women present, due to a distinct lack of appreciation for the more esoterically erotic things in life.   
  
Actually it was lost on the men too.  
  
"That's enough!" Ranma shot back. "Let's get this over with."  
  
"Then we can all get counseling to try to get over the effects of what's just happened," Nabiki added.  
  
Repressing a shudder, the others forced themselves to look in the Blob's direction so that they could watch the upcoming fight. Once a person got over the initial shock, seeing the Blob in a g-string wasn't that bad.  
  
Actually, it was that bad, but the others were somewhat used to the unusual, and therefore they adapted to the situation, looking everywhere higher than waist level on the huge roll of fat that stomped his foot down and prepared for combat.  
  
Nabiki and Ranma lined up side-by-side and prepared for the Blob's charge. Soun raised his hand, then lowered it, indicating the fight should start.  
  
The Blob moved forward. Ranma gauged the man's speed and came up with over a dozen ways to get out of the way of the charge. He gave a smirk to Nabiki. "I don't need your help. I can take this guy by myself."  
  
"Okay." Nabiki fell out of her fighter's stance and casually walked over to where her sisters sat.  
  
Ranma was so surprised by her actually taking his advice instead of being insulted that he almost allowed himself to be trampled by the Blob's charge. It was only at the last moment that he evaded it, catching a swat on the shoulder from the meaty hand of his opponent.   
  
"Almost got you, skinny," the Blob taunted.  
  
Ranma bristled. There was no way he was going to take that kind of slur from the big man. He aimed a hard right into the Blob's stomach to surprise him, then planned to follow that up with a hard left to the head.  
  
However the plan was disrupted when, instead of merely punching the Blob's stomach and backing up for another swing, Ranma found his hand caught firmly in the rolls of fat. Unable to easily remove it, he braced his feet against the floor and redoubled his efforts to pry it out, but still his fist wouldn't budge a centimeter.   
  
"Ha! Whatcha' going to do now, lightweight?" The Blob began laughing hard, a deep nasally thing that involved a lot of snorting and caused him to jiggle like a bowl full of jelly... on a lifeboat in the middle of a typhoon.  
  
Much to the relief of everyone in the room, the endless chortle was interrupted by a hard left to the face, snapping the Blob's head back from the force of the blow.   
  
The Blob shook his head, actually feeling the impact from the hardened fist. "Fine. Back at you." The big man brought his skull forward, headbutting the stationary Ranma with the full force of the blow. It was Ranma's turn to shake his head from the solid impact.  
  
"Don't exchange punches, boy. Get some space," Genma shouted from the sidelines.  
  
"I'm stuck!" Ranma protested as he deflected a right cross from the Blob with his free hand, then brought it back just in time to parry a left.   
  
The Blob changed tactics as he brought his arms together and caught Ranma in a bear hug. It was only at the last second that Ranma brought his loose hand up and prevented it from being pinned as well.   
  
"Use the Saotome Super Special Anti-Bear Hug Technique!" Genma shouted.  
  
"No way! It's too embarrassing!" Ranma protested, though the breath was slowly being crushed from his lungs by the Blob's surprisingly impressive strength.  
  
"Get real, beanpole," the Blob snorted. "There's nothing you can do anyway, secret technique or not. My hold is unbreakable. Unbreakable!"  
  
"Fine," Ranma said, pride giving way to the need to win. He held his fingers up high in a victory sign, causing the Blob to scowl and wonder why the boy was declaring victory when he was on the verge of blacking out.  
  
The Blob learned the true nature of the move as Ranma gave a battle cry of "Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk," and poked the big man in eyes with said fingers. The Blob immediately released his hold both on Ranma's back and his trapped fist, then placed his hands over his eyes as he roared in pain.  
  
Genma looked on in approval. "Witness the dreaded fury of 'Moe-Fu'."  
  
"It seems pretty silly to me," Akane observed as Ranma began audibly slapping the top of the Blob's head, irritating the man further.  
  
"Hardly. You should see what he can do with a cream pie," Genma said ominously.  
  
Akane shuddered and watched on.  
  
Ranma switched from those arcane techniques and went with more conventional ones. A hard slap to the Blob's ear stunned him further, and a stomp into the big man's foot made him crash to the floor hard, shaking the dojo to its foundations. Several more hard blows landed before the Blob regained his footing and prepared to fight back.   
  
It quickly became obvious as the fight progressed that Sumo techniques were ineffectual as Ranma deftly avoided every one of them and retaliated with a series of blows to the Blob's vulnerable head. The strikes added up and began taking their toll on the large sumo.  
  
The easy manner in which the Blob was losing the fight made him panic. The boy hit harder than anyone he had faced before and the youth was quick enough to avoid the big man's attempts to hit him back. Worse, he wasn't wasting time trying to hit the Blob's body any more and went for his more unprotected head and face. Unable to deal with Ranma's speed the Blob found himself weakened and becoming light-headed from the merciless assault. He decided to go for it all with the most powerful technique in his arsenal.  
  
Using all of his strength, the Blob leaped up high in the air and cried out, "Earthshaking Body Smash!" and targeted his landing zone for Ranma.  
  
Ranma nearly rolled his eyes at the Blob's ridiculous attack. Like he was going to remain motionless and let the big man land on him like an out of control Boeing 747. He tensed up to leap out of the way when Nabiki's voice cried out, "Ranma, look out behind you!"  
  
The cry caused Ranma to automatically spin and look behind him to ward off the impending attack. Seeing no immediate attacker, he hesitated in confusion.  
  
Which was just the right amount of time needed for the Blob to crash land directly on top of Ranma. The force of the tremendous impact nearly caused the youth to pass out as all of the breath was driven from his lungs, and he found himself smashed into the floor, splintering the floorboards underneath.   
  
The Blob smiled as he planted his butt firmly on Ranma's back and allowed his feet to touch the floor. Triggering his mutant power, the Blob literally became an 'immovable object'. Not even a herd of elephants could drag him an inch from this spot. He felt Ranma try to rise to his feet, but between the large man's tremendous weight combined with his mutant ability, Ranma couldn't do a thing. All that was left was for the Blob to wait until his opponent gave up or passed out. It didn't make a difference to the him which way he won, just so long as he was the champion at the end.   
  
All but one person on the Tendou and Saotome side looked stupefied at the sudden reversal of the match. Soun and Genma began cheering Ranma on in encouragement, while Akane and Kasumi turned to the sole member who wasn't the least bit surprised at what had just happened.   
  
Nabiki saw the stares directed to her. "I thought I saw something behind him." She didn't even bothering to try to sound sincere.  
  
Akane shot her an accusatory glare. "Liar. You did that deliberately to distract Ranma."  
  
"Prove it," Nabiki taunted.   
  
"Nabiki, you have to help him," Kasumi insisted.  
  
The middle Tendou daughter shook her head. "Ranma said he could handle it on his own. I wouldn't want to wound his pride or anything."  
  
"But if he doesn't win, we'll lose the dojo," Kasumi pointed out.  
  
"No one can blame me for that." Nabiki shrugged, then placed her hand to her chin thoughtfully. "You know, it suddenly occurs to me that if that happens, I probably won't have to practice martial arts anymore. Now won't that just be a shame?"  
  
Akane and Kasumi saw where this was leading to. Gritting her teeth, Akane asked, "What is it going to take to get you to help Ranma and save the dojo?"  
  
Nabiki pretended to consider that, events finally having progressed to the moment she had been waiting for. "I guess I might bring myself to help him win if, say, Ranma was asked out on a date after the match?"  
  
"No way!" Akane said.  
  
"I'm not sure if that would be such a good idea," Kasumi said, finding her hands suddenly fascinating.  
  
Nabiki shrugged. "And it was such a fine old dojo too. Been in the family for a couple of generations. Very nice."  
  
Akane and Kasumi looked at each other, seemed to come to a mutual unspoken agreement, then sighed. Akane spoke for them, "Fine. One of us will ask Ranma on a date after the match. You can decide which one later."  
  
"Au contraire, my dear sibling," Nabiki said. "Both of you have to go out with him."  
  
"What?" the pair said as one.  
  
Nabiki's eyes took on a calculated gleam. "I wouldn't want to be accused of preferring one of my sisters over the other. Since I love both of you equally, it's only fair that both of you go out with him. Besides, don't you think it's best that Ranma has equal opportunity to see which of his two potential fiancees is the one most suited for him?"  
  
"You forgot to include yourself," Kasumi mentioned.   
  
"No, I didn't," Nabiki said firmly.  
  
"Fine, go help Ranma before it's too late," Akane insisted.   
  
Nabiki smirked at her victory and went into action. She slowly walked up to the Blob, who watched her approach with a careful eye. He felt Ranma try once again to lift him on his shoulders and off the ground, but still the Blob's mutant power made Ranma remain where he was, buried face first in the dojo floor.  
  
Seeing she now had the Blob's full attention, Nabiki moved right next to him, easily within arm's length. She told herself this was for her sisters' sakes. One of them was going to have to be chosen by Ranma, and the sooner that happened the sooner Nabiki and the one not chosen would be allowed to get on with their lives. As to the one left behind, well, sacrifices had to be made, just like the one Nabiki was about to make right now. She mentally prepared herself for what she was about to do.  
  
The sumo tensed up, ready for any attack Nabiki might unleash. Or at least any attack save one.   
  
Standing on her toes, Nabiki unleashed the Anything Goes Osculation Technique (without tongue. There were limits, even for Nabiki.)  
  
The Blob was in complete shock. Not that he had been kissed, but that he had been certain it would take at least another five minutes before the girls started jumping his hot and sexy g-string clad body. Obviously he had underestimated his own unstoppable sensuality.   
  
The kiss distracted the Blob so badly that he momentarily lost control of his mutant power and went to just being a normal six hundred pound man sitting on the back of a teenager. Under ordinary circumstances, or even against any other sixteen year old, that would have been enough.   
  
But not when the opponent was Ranma Saotome. The boy was at the peak of physical perfection thanks to the super soldier serum coursing through his veins. Unaware of what had just transpired above him, with every one of his muscles straining, he somehow managed to lift the Blob off his feet, carrying the tremendous amount of weight solely upon his shoulders.   
  
The Blob panicked as he felt his feet lose contact with the ground before he could regain control. Without it, his mutant power was useless and he became just a surprisingly strong fat guy. Using that strength, he tried to strike Ranma in the head. But his position on top of Ranma's shoulders, along with a distinct lack of leverage, made his blows carry only a small portion of the possible power behind them.   
  
Ranma could feel the muscles in his back threatening to buckle under the tremendous weight even as the Blob hammered away at his head. He had to move fast if the plan he had formulated while pinned under the big man was going to work.   
  
With a ringing battle cry he ran through the doors of the dojo and into the backyard, every step draining tremendous amounts of his energy as he carried the squirming six hundred pounds of human flesh on his shoulders. A weaker man would have fallen, but the serum in his veins retarded the build up of lactic acid in his muscles and staved off the fatigue that would have worn anyone else down and caused them to collapse to the ground. Still, Ranma was almost completely exhausted as he finally stopped at his destination.   
  
Everyone else that had been in the dojo followed to witness the rest of the fight. There was a gasp as everyone saw where Ranma had stopped and realized what he was about to do.  
  
Atop his perch on Ranma's shoulders, the Blob recoiled in horror as he realized what his opponent was about to do. With one last surge of strength he tried to get off Ranma's shoulders. For the briefest of moments he thought he was about to succeed as he leaned far to the left and almost off his seat, but the teetering man's motion was arrested as Ranma regained his balance and at last forced the Blob off his shoulders and down in the direction that he wanted him to go...   
  
...headfirst into the koi pond.   
  
As the Blob ended up vertical in the pond, similar to what had happened to Genma the other day, Ranma grabbed onto the big man's legs and prevented him from breaking the surface or getting enough leverage to force his head above the water. The Blob struggled for a few moments as he was held underwater, but he had failed to take a deep breath before ending up in the pond and quickly ran out of the necessary fuel to keep him going.   
  
Ranma felt the big man's struggles become weak. Shouting to be heard underwater, he asked, "Do you yield?!"  
  
For a moment, the Blob struggled, trying to force his way out. But the reality of the situation sat in, and he had no choice but to give a watery, "Yes."  
  
"Do you swear to never challenge another dojo again?"  
  
After a longer pause, the answer was again repeated.   
  
"And in all of the names of the gods above, do you swear never ever, ever to wear a g-string again?"  
  
The feet began kicking forcefully once more. In response, Nabiki, Soun, Genma, and Akane helped hold the Blob where he was. After a full minute of struggling passed, a reluctant, "yes" again emerged from the pond.  
  
It was only when the Blob swore to the vow a second time that the others finally released their hold. With the match over, and Soun politely explaining that he didn't possibly have a budget that was large enough to have the sumos over for dinner, the Blob gathered his students together and headed off into the sunset.  
  
"Heh. That was easy," Ranma said confidently. That elicited a snort of disbelief from Akane, who then left the group. Kasumi seemed a bit perturbed as well and excused herself.   
  
Nabiki was about to leave when Ranma said to her, "You know, you're really making distracting me at critical moments a habit."  
  
Stopping, Nabiki turned to look at him in confusion. "What's that supposed to mean? I only did that to you once."  
  
"Ah," Ranma stammered, suddenly aware of the error he had just committed. It had been 'Bucky' that had been distracted the first time by Nabiki, not Ranma Saotome.  
  
Nabiki was about to press further when Genma shouted, "Would you look at this? It appears the bottom of the pond was cracked again by Ranma dropping that man in headfirst."  
  
"But I just paid to have it fixed! Now all of that money's been wasted!" Soun complained as watched the water level noticeably drop before his eyes.  
  
Genma tried to console him. His claim that "Money isn't everything," was met by an angry, "Obviously it doesn't mean anything to you since you don't have any and are content to leach off mine." Ranma followed as Genma tried to force an apology from him for breaking the pond and choosing a girl as a fiancee as a means of reparation, to which Ranma replied he'd sooner let the Blob wear a g-string again.   
  
And Nabiki was left alone outside, her attention not wavering in the slightest by the argument and still trying to figure out what Ranma meant by her distracting him 'again'. Something was going on, all right. And she was going to get to the bottom of it eventually. One way or another.  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
A day passed as Nabiki found herself no nearer to an explanation for Ranma's comments and behavior. She was sitting in the living room, taking a break and watching television, when she spotted a scowling Akane limp into the room. However, it wasn't the scowl that caught Nabiki's attention but rather the yellow and green dress she was wearing. It was a far nicer outfit than Akane usually wore and was cause for speculation.  
  
It took Nabiki a moment to figure out what the occasion was. "So, you decided to get it over with right away and asked Ranma out already?"  
  
Much to Nabiki's surprise, Akane's scowl disappeared and was replaced with a disturbingly sweet smile. Disturbing because Akane never smiled that sweetly at her unless she was up to something herself.   
  
"You've got that right, Sis," Akane said.   
  
Nabiki was still trying to figure out what Akane was up to when she saw Kasumi also enter the living room. Like Akane, Kasumi was dressed in an outfit that was much nicer than her usual choice of clothing. An elegant red dress with white elbow length white gloves and short black heels. The duo made quite the pair.  
  
Again Nabiki looked her older sister over in confusion. "Wait a minute, I thought Akane was going out with Ranma tonight."  
  
"She is," Kasumi confirmed.   
  
"But you're dressed up like you're going out with Ranma."  
  
"That's because I am."  
  
Now Nabiki was more perplexed than ever. "So you're going to go out with Ranma after Akane, right?"  
  
"No," Kasumi answered.  
  
"Then you're going out first and Akane's going out after?"  
  
This time it was Akane who answered, "No."   
  
"What the heck's going on?!" Nabiki finally shouted, at last at wit's end.  
  
Kasumi gave her normal sweet smile, which caused Nabiki even further worry. Kasumi said, "Akane and I decided the fairest thing to do would be for both of us to go out with Ranma together, as in at the same time."  
  
Nabiki stared at her sisters, slack-jawed. "But that means-"  
  
"-that Ranma won't dare make a move on either of us for fear of insulting the other," Akane finished for her. "There isn't the slightest chance anything is going to happen. He probably won't even risk flattering us or give us flowers. You can hardly even call it a date." Akane gave a smirk that rivaled any of Nabiki's  
  
As for Nabiki, she would have given her sisters' deviousness a nod of approval if it hadn't been for the vested interest she had in pawning one of them off on Ranma.   
  
She was still in the process of thinking how to circumvent her sisters' plans when Ranma at last appeared, dressed in a tux that, despite its large dimensions, was still pulled tight across his impressive chest, just as his father had told him to. Akane and Kasumi actually found their tension drift away for a moment as they found themselves, while not necessarily attracted (they told themselves), not quite as disinterested in their date as they were a moment ago.  
  
Off to the side, Nabiki felt a touch of envy towards her sisters. It quickly disappeared when she remembered what the end goal would be if she were to voluntarily become involved with Ranma. If there was even the slightest hint of interest in him, she had little doubt her father would have them married quicker than she could say, "I do."  
  
Ranma stared at the attractive girls and was more panicked than ever. Obviously the trio were so desperately captivated by his appearance that they were now fighting over who had the privilege to go out with him. It was equally obvious that since neither Akane nor Kasumi were going to back down, they had made some kind of agreement to go out with him at the same time. Worse, there was now a chance that not only would the two fathers push him to marry at least one of the girls, but they might conceivably want him to take another as his mistress. He silently vowed to play it cool and not do anything in the slightest that could be construed as possible interest in either of the girls, even if they did look nice. Equally so, which was quite remarkable considering they were both very different, yet very cute and...  
  
Ranma shook those sorts of thought out of his head. That was exactly the sort of thing that would get him into trouble by getting him married to one of them and then who knew what disaster would befall him after that. No. He would have to think about things other than the girls' looks and concentrate on fending off their advances (of which there would no doubt be many) so they wouldn't report back to either father that he had demonstrated an interest in either one of them.  
  
The doorbell rang. Nabiki saw the three other occupants of the room were so preoccupied with their private thoughts that no one else had reacted to it. She decided to leave the trio alone to think about one another while she answered the door. She found herself greeted by the last person in the world she least expected would drop by.  
  
"What are you doing here, Mr. Dukes?" Nabiki asked of the man who, much to her relief had lived up to his vow of not going about in a g-string. She was still having cold sweats about that whole incident. Of course, there was the curious question as to why he was decked out in a horrifying plaid tuxedo and held a bouquet of flowers in his hand.  
  
"Hey now, sugar cakes. Why don't you call me Fred?" he said as he removed his hat and bowed before her.  
  
"Why don't we find a middle ground? You don't refer to me in any affectionate culinary terms, and I won't kick you in the balls hard enough to make them come out your backside?"  
  
The Blob kept on smiling, unfazed by the threat. "That's no way to talk to your date, honeybunch."  
  
"D...Date?" Nabiki barely managed to get out.   
  
"Oh yeah. I knew from the moment you sucked my face you were steaming hot for me. But don't worry, I like playing things slow. There's no reason we can't go on several dates first before we go back to my place and do the horizontal mambo. Got the bed specially re-enforced so I can give you a real wild ride." He swayed his hips to add to the effect of the come on.  
  
For a moment, Nabiki nearly visualized what he was saying. Almost. "Listen up, I would sooner marry my would-be fiancé and birth a dozen little anklebiters in his name before I would ever willingly consent to a date with you."  
  
"Be that as it may, you are still going out on a date with Mr. Dukes."  
  
Nabiki turned on shock at the all-too familiar voice that had come from behind her. "What do you mean, Daddy?"  
  
Soun had a look of intensity upon him, a very, very rare one. It was the one that indicated it would be better to agree with what he was about to say rather than end up being punished and doing it anyway. "You employed the Anything Goes Osculation Technique on him. No daughter of mine shall behave so brazenly with a man and refuse to go out with him at least once."  
  
"But it was for the dojo," Nabiki protested.   
  
Soun shook his head, his mind already made up. "Irrelevant. You will go out on at least one date with him."  
  
"And we'll have a good time," Fred nearly drooled.  
  
"BUT NOT THAT GOOD A TIME!" Soun shouted as he unleashed his demon-head attack towards his daughter's would-be suitor.   
  
Fred nearly wet his pants. And he had thought that Magneto twit was scary. "I won't lay a hand on her, sir!" he quickly said, mentally adding that no girl, no matter how attractive she was, would be worth ending up with THAT as a father-in-law.  
  
Nabiki ground her teeth in anger. There was one obvious person to blame for all of this. The one who was responsible for losing her temper in the first place and making her sloppy in having to resort to using the osculation technique. With a snarl she growled out, "Ranma Saotome, this is all your fault!"  
  
And in the house, Ranma shuddered. It felt not like that someone had stepped on his grave, but that rather that they had thrown him in an open hole and poured a half-ton of dirt on him.   
  
"These girls are scary," he murmured under his breath.  
  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Yes, I know I used 'The Blob' instead of 'The Duke,' throughout the fic despite the latter being the more 'proper' name in this universe. I tried it that way, but I felt it didn't provoke the proper imagery when picturing The Talented Mr. Dukes.  
  
I know this was shorter and a bit of a filler but I couldn't resist doing it. Next chapter reveals the last heroes right before events finally fully kick into the motion as all of the various Avengers will be brought together at last.  
  
Special thanks to:  
  
T.H. Tiger.  
William Morse  
Gary Ee  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	7. Honey, I Shrunk Kasumi

  
Avenging   
Chapter 7  
Honey, I Shrunk Kasumi  
  
Any and all C+C is appreciated. You can contact me at  
sommer@3rdm.net  
or viper02@nauticom.net  
  
At Larry F's at:  
http://lwf58.tripod.com/fan_fiction/d_b_sommer/index.html  
  
Or R+C books at:  
http://dbsommer.rcbooks.org  
  
And also Angcobra is now storing all of my fics, at   
http://s5.sexshare.com/~angcobra/dbsommer.html  
  
Standard disclaimer:  
I don't own any of the any of the Marvel characters, or the folks from Ranma 1/2 or any of the other various anime sources I refer to here.  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Mopping the sweat from her brow with an embroidered silk handkerchief, Kodachi Kunou gave a satisfied smirk at her handiwork. The modifications were finally completed. It had taken a great deal of sweat and toil for the better part of the last two days, but the results were what she desired. The Iron Rose Mark II armor could now fit into the attaché case she had especially designed for it. True, the case was a bit large, three times the size of a normal attaché case, but it was necessary. The armor was just too bulky to fit in something smaller, even having been redesigned to be collapsible, as it was now.   
  
The need to carry the armor around at all times had become a necessary evil. Recent events, combined with what she had just learned about the stock situation concerning Kunou Industries, clearly indicated someone was targeting her family's business for a takeover of the most hostile kind. Kunou Industries' stock was being purchased at an astronomical rate by a number of different sources. On the surface, it appeared to be little more than normal, if somewhat healthy, trading. However, when she dug a good bit deeper, it became apparent that most of the buyers were nothing more than propped up fronts. The truth was obvious; there was a major player who was preparing to make her family's company their own. Kodachi had not yet uncovered who the mystery person (or persons) behind the plot was, but she had hired a small army of investigators to discover the identity of schemer or company. It was only a matter of time before the truth was uncovered, and she would have a name for the problems plaguing her.  
  
It was also clear that whoever was moving in for the takeover was probably behind the disappearances of both her father and brother. Neither would have parted with the company willingly any more than Kodachi would have. With any of them at the helm, and with their controlling stock, a takeover would be nearly impossible. Without them, it would go smoothly and save the person trying to buy the company billions of yen. That was more than enough motive for any ruthless person or corporation to have the only potential stumbling blocks eliminated, or at least try to eliminate them.   
  
After Misuharu Ohama's mysterious assassination attempt failed, a second effort was made on Kodachi's life. Luckily, security had proven their worth by catching the would-be bomber before he managed to enter Kodachi's offices. Both attempts were nearly identical. The man had been an employee for Kunou Industries for nearly two decades and by all accounts was satisfied with his job and pay. He had a family that he loved dearly. He had no known outstanding debts and his bank account had the expected amount of money in it. There was no reason for him to try to kill her. Once the man had been interrogated, it became obvious his mental condition was similar to Ohama's. He had fallen victim to some sort of brainwashing as well, and no leads had turned up on that clue to date either.   
  
Kodachi had little doubt that it was only a matter of time before this mystery person attacked her again through another surrogate. It would be up to her to uncover the identity of her assailant, or more accurately, it would be up to the Iron Rose. That meant keeping the armor close at hand. The only way to do that was to conceal it. Enter her new attaché case. She was going to show it off to the world. Once people became used to her always walking around with it like it was surgically attached to her, no one would be suspicious that she and the Iron Rose were the same. It was a magnificent plan.   
  
She closed the lid on the case. A mental note was made to redesign the helmet again to make it more collapsible, since she had to use a great deal of muscle to force the top shut and latch it tight. Once it was closed, it looked fine, except for the large size of the case. She grabbed the handle and pulled it off the table it was resting on...  
  
...And promptly screamed in pain as it landed squarely on her foot, the weight of the attaché being far too much for her to carry around.  
  
As she hopped on one foot while trying to hold the other at the same time, Kodachi decided that this was the final straw. She silently vowed she would streamline the armor the first decent chance she got, the additional protection of the current version be damned. In the meantime, she would need to modify the attaché case again, maybe some wheels added to the bottom and a pull cord...  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Daredevil craned his neck back to speak to the new impending menace that was threatening the city. From the waist upwards, this strange newcomer was an imposing sight to those that had sight. Midnight blue armor covered his body like a medieval knight hell-bent on some glorious crusade. The faceplate was not meant to be intimidating, with its flat surface and plain features, but that unadorned look was unsettling in some way to those who could see it, perhaps because it lacked character of any kind. The musculature of the armor wasn't exaggerated, but still appeared imposing due to its size and obvious thickness. All things considered, it was an impressive appearance that implied a mysterious power and implied this man might be someone to be reckoned with.  
  
Save for the fact his legs were stilts.  
  
"What's your name again?!" Daredevil shouted upward to the man that, though standing only fifteen feet away from him on the ground, was also five stories high.  
  
"The Stilt Man!"  
  
Daredevil cringed. He was afraid that was what the man had said the first time. "And your powers?!"  
  
"What?!"  
  
"I ASKED YOU WHAT YOUR POWERS ARE!"  
  
"Isn't it obvious?! As you can plainly tell, I am a brilliant inventor whose unappreciated work in hydraulics, as well as dealing with stupid pointy-haired bosses and working fifty-five hours a week for inferior pay, has frustrated me to the point that I have decided to embark on a life of crime! Using my genius in the field of hydraulics, I devised these massive legs to enable me to get really tall and... Hold on! I'm getting tired of shouting!" The Stilt Man's hydraulic legs, which looked pretty much like two plain, thick metal columns with nothing in the way of feet, retracted downward so that he was only fifteen feet high instead of the previous ninety.  
  
"Ah, that's better," Stilt Man said. "My throat was getting dry. I'm going to have to put a microphone in this thing. I didn't realize I'd have to shout so much when I'm so much taller than everyone else. Now, where was I?"  
  
Daredevil sighed almost painfully. "You were talking about building those legs and being tall."  
  
"Right, I built these legs so that I would be a powerful super-villain and can steal lots of money. Now I'm not just a second story man, but the third, fourth, and fifth floors as well."  
  
"I... see." Daredevil casually moved five steps to the right, placed his hands behind his back, and stood still once more. "And the armor you wear? Lots of built in weapons, I suppose?"  
  
Stilt Man gave a nervous laugh. "Not really. My genius is restricted to the field of hydraulics. I haven't got the faintest idea of how to build cool things like sonic guns or heat rays or shooting sticky paste at people. But the armor does protect me from small arms fire and from the fists of costumed adventurers."  
  
While his arms were out of sight behind his back, Daredevil flicked his wrist and a crowbar fell from out of his voluminous robes and into his hands. He made it appear he was listening with rapt attention while he used his body and loose outfit to shield the crowbar from view. He softly played it along the ground until it caught in the opening he had spotted with his radar sense. "So, what you're telling me is, your sole superpower is the ability to look stupid on a pair of adjustable stilts."  
  
"I do not look stupid!"  
  
"Did you look in a mirror?"  
  
"Sure. When I first put the armor on. I looked cool. Maybe a little stumpy with the leg designs, but cool."  
  
"Your stilts weren't extended then, were they?"  
  
"Ah, no, but I couldn't. I mean, it's not like someone's built a two story full-length mirror or something, right?"  
  
Daredevil could barely refrain from just walking away from the whole thing. He raged more at the world than the Stilt Man as he began shouting, "Most super-heroes get cool villains! Like pasty faced guys with wicked senses of humor and laughing gas that can kill, or enigmatic fellows with an affinity for clever riddles that the hero has to figure out to prevent the crimes. Some even get an attractive female thief with a cat motif that feels helplessly drawn to them even while she's in the middle of fighting them. That's what I want, but what do I get? Weenie racecar drivers, men in frog costumes with springs in their feet that have the ability to, get this, jump, and overweight guys that have bad hair and can glide. An owl is not an intimidating creature to anything but a mouse, godamnit!"  
  
"How dare you make fun of me and my cool super stilts!" Stilt Man shouted. "All right, I'll concede my appearance might not be intimidating, but my abilities can't be beat. You see, by being up here, you can't get me. I'm out of reach. And even if you could get fifteen feet high, I could go up to thirty, even seventy feet or higher. You can't touch me. Hahahaha!"  
  
"But with you up there, you can't get to me either," Daredevil pointed out.  
  
Stilt Man's voice took on a sinister bent, at least as sinister as he could manage with two giant pylons for legs. "That's easy. All I have to do is step on you with one of these 'stupid' hydraulic legs, which can press ten tons under optimal conditions. And these conditions are very optimal, Darepancake." Stilt Man raised his foot and aimed it right at Daredevil's stationary form, humming 'London Bridge is Falling Down' as it descended towards his foe.  
  
Daredevil sighed, waiting until the last moment to nimbly leap to the side. As he jumped, he pulled the crowbar upward and yanked off the manhole cover he had been standing on like a pop top on a bottle of beer.   
  
Stilt Man had only an instant to allow the horror of what had just happened wash over him as he watched his right leg disappear down the hole. There was no time to extend the errant limb to the bottom as his leg fell into the equivalent of a five foot gopher hole on a man not wearing stilts. His downward motion was arrested by his body hitting the pavement at the edge of the hole. Or, to be more specific, his crotch hitting the pavement at the edge of the hole.   
  
"Needed... more... armor... there," Stilt Man squeaked out as he remained exactly where he was, tears streaming from his eyes.  
  
Daredevil walked up to his opponent, twirling something that looked like it was from a UFO catcher machine. "Give up, or do I show you the terrors of my new weapon, the 'testicular claw'?"  
  
"I give up," Stilt Man said in falsetto as he held his arms up in eager surrender.  
  
"Thought so." Daredevil tossed the UFO catcher claw aside. And Stick had told him it was stupid to carry something so useless around. But once you added a terrifying name made up on the spur of the moment, it became a device of unimaginable horror. Superheroing was easy. It was like a courtroom. Half of the fight was won on actual ability, and the other half was won on delivering a good performance.  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
"Wow, this place is something else." Kyosuke Kasuga whistled in awe. His eyes took in every piece of fantastic equipment that filled the cathedral-sized chamber of the secret sub-level of the local branch of Hydra's headquarters he had been ordered to go to.  
  
"Yes, the cost and impressive array of equipment they have clearly indicates this terrorist organization should have the resources I require for my purposes," Hiroshi Karigari told his companion.  
  
It was the first time the two had met. Kyosuke marked Hiroshi as slightly older than him, somewhere around nineteen while he was a mere seventeen. Where Kyosuke was only a touch on the geeky side, a bit undersized, soft-spoken, and not in particularly good shape, Hiroshi fell under the category of the classic 'nerd'. He was lucky if he weighed one hundred and twenty pounds soaking wet, wore thick glasses, and, judging by the way his hand kept going for his chest, had only recently managed to kick the habit of perpetually wearing a pocket protector. Their new employers frowned on such things in their agents. Pocket protectors simply weren't intimidating. And besides, everyone knew all the nerds joined the Advanced Idea Mechanics. Hydra agents were supposed to be better than that. They were strong. They were dangerous. They could pick up chicks.  
  
Even as Kyosuke sized Hiroshi up, the older youth did the same. He noted that Kyosuke was dressed, not in the standard green suit with yellow stripes that most of the field agents were given, but rather wore a red, loose-fitting jumpsuit. Attached to the back of the neck of the uniform was a helmet with a wide visor attached to the front which would effectively conceal his identity from casual observation. Hiroshi wore a similar outfit, save that it was green, and he had a simple black mask instead of a visor attachment. Both uniforms marked them as part of the 'super agent' branch of Hydra, which everyone just called the 'Super Villain Squad.'  
  
At the moment, they were alone, the room having been emptied for their upcoming meeting with the Imperial Hydra, the mysterious leader of the organization. Hiroshi had heard from others that no one had even seen the Imperial Hydra face-to-face for years, but he still held the group in an iron grip. He supposed it was one of the advantages of being the boss of your own terrorist organization; you could telecommute whenever you felt like it.  
  
"So what name do you go by?" Hiroshi asked his companion.   
  
"They had a list of code names. I chose Mentallo. I know it's not great, but it was better than some of the other choices. You should have seen what some of those idiots in the promotions section came up with. There were ones like Headlok, Mind-Wave, Think Tank, and the absolute worst, Brain Guy. I think Mentallo was the least bad of the choices. It's not too bad." Kyosuke shrugged.   
  
"You mean you actually got to choose?" There was obvious anger in Hiroshi's voice.  
  
"Why? What's your name?" Kyosuke missed the signs of an obvious diatribe coming up.   
  
"The Fixer! Can you believe that? I sound like a cheap television repair man. It is a totally inappropriate name for field operations. I mean, what's someone going to do if I go charging in and shouting, 'You'd better give up, or the Fixer's going to fix you'? Please, they'll think I'm there to neuter their pets."  
  
"That is pretty lame," Kyosuke agreed.   
  
Having a sympathetic ear, Hiroshi continued, "What really stinks is I had a really good name picked out: Techno. I mean, it's great. It sounds much more sophisticated than the 'Fixer.' You just get visions of me with my high-tech equipment doing all sorts of unpleasant things with a wide array of advanced weapons to the good guys."  
  
Kyosuke nodded his head. "Have to agree with you there. I'm a lot happier with Mentallo now than I was before. So you're a high-tech gadget guy?"  
  
"Yep. Inventive genius. I can design and build all sorts of things. Ray guns, magnetic couplers, anti-gravity flying units, a version of Windows that runs without getting error messages every hour. Yourself?"  
  
"High level telepath. I can read minds, and attack people with mental blasts. I have telekinesis as well, but I don't use it much. It gives me a splitting headache whenever I use it."  
  
"Take aspirin for that?"  
  
"Yes, but it doesn't really help all that much. Besides, super-villains can't chug aspirin in the middle of fight. Someone could beat me up while I was trying to get the goddamn stupid childproof caps off. Usually I just suffer when I use it and down half a bottle when I get back to base."  
  
"I could rig up a portable dispenser unit so you could take some in the middle of a fight without it costing you a punch to the gut."  
  
"Would you? That would help a lot."  
  
"Sure. Once I get a few hours, I'll whip it up for you. It would probably be best to build it into the helmet right next to the extendible helmet microphone. We'll hook up a tube and when you pull out the microphone, the dispenser tube will be right next to it. That way no one will even realize what you're doing."  
  
"That's brilliant."  
  
"I am an genius inventor. I couldn't call myself that if I couldn't handle the simple stuff." Hiroshi primped himself up as he basked in the accolade.   
  
Kyosuke found himself liking his fellow agent, which he could not say for most of his other co-workers. Most members of Hydra seemed just a bit on the psychotic side. Those who weren't outright psychos tended to be either fanatics, opportunists, or worst of all, lawyers. Even the psychotics didn't get along with them, which was probably why Hydra's legal branch was easily the most feared unit in the entire organization.   
  
But Hiroshi was different. Kyosuke almost felt an instant bond form with his fellow Super Agent. Since whatever tensions that normally came between two strangers had disappeared almost instantly, Kyosuke decided to ask some questions of a more personal nature and see if Hiroshi was willing to open up. "What made you decide to join Hydra anyway? No offense, but you don't seem to be the usual type who joins."  
  
"I know, I'm not," Hiroshi admitted. "It all goes back to my college days. There was this girl there named Marie. She was the most beautiful and nicest girl I had ever met. Once she crashed into me, smashing those oh so perfect breasts into my face, I fell for her instantly. But I knew she couldn't feel the same way about me."  
  
"She was a lesbian, wasn't she?" Kyosuke spat with an unusual amount of venom.  
  
"Ah, no." Hiroshi was caught off-guard by the ferocity of the comment. "She was, you know, popular. I was just this poor, geeky, skinny, mousy, little nerd that perpetually went around with a pocket protector. What could she see in someone like me, whose future probably consisted of getting a job in the computer industry making a six figure salary, has a stable personality, and would stay faithful to her and treat her like a queen since she's the best thing that could possibly happen to a nerd like me and I knew it? No. She could have had her pick of any of the popular guys who were handsome, rich, suave, and could have her as a trophy wife while carrying on affairs with their secretaries behind her back, since they're rich and handsome and every good-looking golddigger is gunning for them, just waiting for the moment when he gets tired of his wife and gets a divorce? Why would she choose me when she could have all that?" Hiroshi's shoulder slumped in defeat.  
  
Kyosuke said, "You're so right. Good guys like us always finish last, which is one of the reasons we've become bad guys. So we can finish first and get back at those who have wronged us. So, you're going to become a super-villain so that's she'll be hopelessly drawn to you, since we all know that women secretly want dangerous men deep in their hearts instead of nice guys like they claim?"  
  
"Ah, no. That's not why I'm doing this. Not at all."  
  
"You're not joining Hydra as some twisted form of revenge on a girl who rejected you?" Kyosuke sounded disappointed.  
  
"No. I pretty much resigned myself to her remaining beyond my reach. So instead I made a robot version of her. She's identical in every way, except her hair color is pink and her breasts are just a touch bigger. Her personality is a little different, but she's still sweet and caring and actually likes to talk to me. We even spend quality time doing things together."  
  
"Actually, it sounds like you're pretty together. I don't know why you'd want to join an organization like Hydra," Kyosuke said.  
  
"It's because I need a lot of money, and quick. I ran out of it while building Marie. She runs fine, except for the tiny problem with shielding for her radioactive core."  
  
"What problem is that?"  
  
"She doesn't have any. She leaks radiation like a Russian nuclear power plant. I can't spend more than five minutes with her, or I'd be glowing in the dark."  
  
Kyosuke's eyes widened. "How did you get a radioactive power core, on your own, before you joined Hydra? Did you steal it from a government facility?"  
  
"No. I got it by scraping off the glow-in-the-dark material on those watches Greenpeace handed out while they were on campus protesting environmental degradation."   
  
"I sense a twisted bit of irony there."  
  
"Anyway, since I ran out of cash, building robots is expensive after all, I had to get some money quick. Becoming a member of an elite terrorist organization seemed the best way to raise funds fast. I'm not sorry about it, even if they did give me a tacky name. Now how about you? Why did you become a member of Hydra?"  
  
Kyosuke began to tremble slightly. "Oh, I have reasons, very good reasons. It all started in my second year of high-school. I met this," Kyosuke's voice choked up, rendering him unable to speak.  
  
Hiroshi patted him on the back. "If it's too hard for you...?"  
  
"No. I can do this. I have to do this." Kyosuke took a moment to compose himself. "Anyway, I had just moved into the district. On the first day there, I decided to go for a walk. I was just walking down this long flight of steps when I caught this red hat that had been blowing on the wind. I looked up, and it turned out it belonged to the most beautiful girl I had ever seen; it was love at first sight. My heart belonged to her forever in that moment. Her name was Madoka. I should have told her how I felt, but I was too awestruck to speak, and I didn't want to scare her off with that kind of wild talk. We had a brief discussion about the number of steps that were there, and, after mentally tampering with her mind so she agreed that the number I counted was correct, she left. I thought I would never see her again."  
  
"So it's over a woman too, just like me?"  
  
"Yes. Isn't it always about them? Anyway, we did meet again. It was like Fate, or maybe even Destiny. It turned out she not only attended the same school as me, but was also in the same class. She had something of a reputation of being a wild gang girl, but I didn't care. There was something in those eyes I saw on those steps that day that told a different story than the one that her trashy reputation had given her. Just one look in those pools of brown, and I knew there was a good woman worth loving underneath a rough exterior. It was true love that had touched my heart. I knew this was the one woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with."  
  
"It sounds very romantic," Hiroshi agreed.   
  
"And then, there was this incident. It involved this underclassman named Hikaru. When I was on my way to morning classes, I saw her get in an argument with this guy who drove her to school on his motorcycle. He didn't like the way it ended when he left. I found that out when I was going home at the end of the day. Thoughts of Madoka were plaguing my mind when I saw Hikaru being accosted by the guy and several of his friends. It was pretty obvious they were going to do some unsavory things to her, and being the sort of person that I am, I was going to go down there and defend her honor."  
  
"Let me guess, after defending her, she became enamored with you, and you ended up in a sordid love triangle with her and that Madoka girl, who turned out to be her best friend?"  
  
"If only it could have been something so simple! It was something much, much worse than that!" Kyosuke wailed. "As I was about to go down there, Madoka showed up. It was obvious Hikaru knew her, as she called out 'Madoka-sama' and hid behind her for protection. Madoka stared those guys off for a while and told them to leave before they got themselves into trouble. She was so heroic, defending her friend like that and risking bodily harm for her. I fell in love with her all over again. The guys didn't back off. They attacked, but Madoka beat the hell out of them way better than I ever could. I'd say she's at least as tough as a hand-to-hand Hydra combat specialist."  
  
"A beautiful girl who can handle herself in a fight and stands up for those that can't defend themselves. Sounds like she's a girl worth loving, all right," Hiroshi agreed.   
  
"But you haven't heard the tragic end to this tale. Anyway, she beat up the whole lot of them and left them lying unconscious on the ground. Hikaru was cheering loudly and telling the whole lot of them that they could never stand-up to her Madoka-sama, and I was inclined to agree. In fact, I was just about to go down there and congratulate her when it happened. She..." Kyosuke's voice momentarily choked up.  
  
"Yes?" Hiroshi asked, drawn into this tale of broken hearts and woe.  
  
"She..."  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"She..."  
  
"Damn it, man, tell me!"  
  
"She grabbed Hikaru roughly by her hair, told the guys that was her 'bitch' and kissed her full on the lips in front of everyone!"  
  
"..."  
  
"The woman I loved with all my heart was a lesbian!" Kyosuke continued on, failing to note Hiroshi's speechless state. "That's why I joined Hydra. I want them to boost my mental powers so I can control everyone on Earth. Then I'm going to wipe out the immoral disease of lesbianism by removing it from every mind on the planet."  
  
"..."  
  
"I'll get the gay guys too. I don't really care about them, but I wouldn't want people accusing me of being sexist or anything. But all the lesbians are going to be made to go straight, so they don't maim the hearts of pure young men such as myself, and emotionally scar them for the rest of their lives."  
  
Deciding, "..." was probably not accurately describing events, Hiroshi managed to say, "That's got to be one of the most tragic stories I've ever heard. My heart goes out to you." Actually, it was one of the most pathetically stupid stories Hiroshi had ever heard and his heart was staying right where it was, but he was damned if he would say that out loud. Kyosuke was a telepath, and could probably wipe out Hiroshi's mind if he said what he really thought of someone willing to change his whole life because he mistakenly hit on a dyke. Hiroshi made a mental note to invent some kind of psionic shielding, just in case Kyosuke decided he was a lesbian trapped in a man's body or something and tried wiping his brain out.  
  
Their conversation was interrupted by the lights dimming and the main viewscreen of the chamber suddenly activating. A green masked face dominated three quarters of the screen, filling it completely. The face gave those in the chamber the impression of talking to a colossus that could crush them like fleas if it so chose.   
  
The reaction was instantaneous as both Kyosuke and Hiroshi slipped into their roles as 'The Fixer' and 'Mentallo.' They threw their helmets on, stood at attention, raised their hands over their heads, and shouted, "Hail Hydra! Cut off one head and two more shall grow to take its place!"  
  
"Oh, shut up. I don't have time for that silly rant," The Imperial Hydra said in a deep baritone as he waved his hand in irritation.  
  
Both youths looked at each other in surprise. Neither had met their supreme commander before, but that was not the kind of response either had expected. Most Hydra sub-commanders had a tendency to flog those members who did not repeat the mantra correctly and enthusiastically.  
  
"Here's what you two are going to do," the Imperial Hydra continued, not caring in the slightest at their surprise. "During a recent raid on an A.I.M. base we captured an experimental prototype of a device they were developing. It's a machine designed to magnify a telepath's abilities severalfold. It-"  
  
"Joy! Now my plans will at long last become reality," Mentallo gushed.   
  
In response to the interruption, the Imperial Hydra flicked a switch. The gushing became a sporadic dance of pain as Mentallo found the metal floor plate under his feet suddenly electrified. He continued hopping from one foot to the next for several seconds until the power was turned off.  
  
The Imperial Hydra gave a satisfied muttering at the results. A floor panel slid out to the side and an odd-looking stand rose from its secret recess from below. Upon the top of the stand was an oversized, red metal helmet; about three times the size of a normal human head. A series of spiky electrodes lined its surface, and sparks of electricity occasionally danced between the electrodes.  
  
"That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen," the Fixer said aloud.  
  
Mentallo jumped away from his companion, anticipating a shock to be delivered for the comment.   
  
"You are correct," the Imperial Hydra agreed. "A.I.M. has no sense of aesthetics. It all comes from having a loser with a giant head running their organization. Now, as I was saying, I want it field tested. Since you're the strongest telepath we have, actually you're the only one we have, Mentallo, you will employ the device in the field. The Fixer will function as your bodyguard, on the off-hand chance something goes wrong."  
  
"I'm not wearing that stupid thing," Mentallo protested. Another series of shocks was administered to him, resuming the dance. "Hey, OW! that's not fair! OW! You didn't electroOW! cute him for saying it was stupid. OW!"  
  
"I was agreeing with our illustrious leader's opinion, not protesting a direct order he gave," the Fixer pointed out.  
  
"Oh, OW! right."   
  
Once again the current was turned off. As the pain subsided, Mentallo decided to keep his mouth shut from now on. He'd just have his new, technologically oriented friend redesign the thing so it didn't look quite so ridiculous, and in the meantime he would mind blank everyone so they didn't remember they had seen him in it.  
  
Again the Imperial Hydra spoke. "I warn you, there is a limit of twenty square kilometers on the device, so don't get too excited over it. Still, that should be enough to cover one ward of the Tokyo district. Your target will be Nerima."  
  
Mentallo could barely contain his eagerness. "At last, I can begin the eradication of lesbianism from this entire planet, and it all starts in Nerima."  
  
"No!" the Imperial Hydra shouted. "This is just a basic field test. I want you to cause all of them to enter a trance and nothing else. No mental tampering whatsoever. And make sure that you ease them into it. I don't want any casualties in the area. Make sure people driving in cars pull over first, anyone cooking turns their stoves off, and that everyone resolves such potentially hazardous situations before you put them fully under. I will be overseeing the operation personally. Should you disobey my orders in the slightest, your punishment will be severe. Do you understand your orders?"   
  
"Yes, Sir! Hail Hydra!" the Fixer shouted.  
  
"You're sure I can't tamper with even a single lesbian's mind? I'll be in and out so quick you won't even realizOW! Hail Hydra! Turn off the shocks! OW! Hail Hydra! Hail Hydra!"  
  
"Super villains," the Imperial Hydra muttered grumpily. "Give me the good old days when we were nothing but mercenaries and disenfranchised military men any time. Now go." The screen went black.  
  
The Fixer and Mentallo looked at each other and sighed. The Fixer said, "It looks like the game's afoot."  
  
"Yeah. And speaking of feet, do you think you can whip me up a set of insulated boots? I have this bad feeling I'm going to be putting them to good use."  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
With the last of the vegetables done frying, Kasumi quickly removed the skillet from the stove. She placed them next to the other vegetables she had cooked earlier. Dinner was almost ready. Just a little more mixing, and adding a few spices, and everything would be finished, save the meat, which needed to cook in the oven for another hour before it was ready. Akane would be home by then, and the entire family and guests would dine together.  
  
A soft sigh escaped Kasumi's lips. It was only during these quiet moments alone in the kitchen, a place that was her sole domain, that the eldest Tendou girl had a chance to think. She had a lot on her mind, most of it relating to the new boy who had entered the lives of her and her family. Actually, all of it had to do with Ranma, and what his presence meant.  
  
The date from the other night, the one she and Akane had been forced to go on thanks to Nabiki's machinations, had been pleasant, if uneventful. The plan she and Akane had come up with had been executed just as they thought it would be. Since both girls had been there, Ranma did not even try to put the moves on either of them, no doubt because he was afraid the other girl would be offended at the attention. Of course, it was only as they set out that the worst case scenario occurred to Kasumi: what if Ranma tried to seduce both of them. Luckily, nothing like that had occurred. Ranma had not hit on either of them, and had been a perfect gentleman. If anything, he had seemed awkward at being in both their presences. It was the sort of behavior she would have expected from an older man, rather than the normally hormonally driven maniacs younger men tended to be. Ranma's well-mannered behavior had been a welcome surprise.  
  
The dinner itself had been nice. Kasumi rarely ate out anymore. Apart from financial concerns, she didn't know that many people that she could dine with. There were neighbors, but they weren't the sort one took out to dinner. Most of her high school friends were long gone, now living lives of their own or continuing their schooling, and Kasumi had fallen out of touch with them long ago. There wasn't really anyone, outside of her family. Certainly there were no romantic interests. None at all, or so it seemed.  
  
But then, Ranma's presence was her father's attempted solution to that little quandary, wasn't it? Of course, that problem could apply to any of the Tendou girls, but Kasumi's thoughts turned inevitably to herself. Ranma really wasn't acceptable marriage material. There was no bigger turn off than a younger man, as far as she was concerned. Except it was sort of difficult to think of Ranma in those terms, especially after seeing him dressed in the tuxedo last night. He was a centimeter taller and a good bit larger than her. The impressive physique he boasted was one she had seen on very few men, older or otherwise, and helped to mask his true age. He just didn't appear all that much younger than her, at least physically.   
  
However, his attitude was a different matter. There were definite signs of immaturity there. The sparring sessions with his father told the story. During those times, taunting and childish behaviors were the norm. There were occasions when he behaved as though he were younger than fourteen. Still, there were other times when he didn't. He had acted like a gentleman on the date. To her knowledge, he had not attempted to hit on Akane or Nabiki either. Given their mutual attitudes toward their potential husband, Kasumi was certain she would have seen some reaction on their part. In an odd way, that made her feel good. Not that she wanted Ranma to make a pass at her, but if she was the one he tried to get the interest of first, it would have been sort of reassuring in a way. It would have been a kind of sign that she was still desirable to members of the opposite sex. No one had tried to ask her out, or come on to her in any way, since she had graduated high school. She was beginning to have doubts about her looks, which she thought were good enough, if a bit average. However, if a boy like Ranma thought she was more interesting than a cute girl like Akane, or someone as athletic as Nabiki, it would have been very flattering.   
  
It took Kasumi a moment to realize what direction her thoughts had somehow turned to. That wasn't good. She had not started thinking of Ranma in that way, but now she was finding the faintest hint of doubt in her mind. It was ridiculous. Both Akane and Nabiki were far better suited to marry him than she was. She had no interest in him in that way. All she had to do was open Ranma's eyes so he saw things that way too. During the date she had given several suggestions to Ranma that informed him of what a nice girl Akane was and that she would be a suitable partner to him. Kasumi had even gone to 'powder her nose' after dropping the hints, hoping nature would take its course and Ranma would express some interest in Akane while she was gone. But that had not happened, and both were just as she had left them when she returned. There had to be something she could do to convince Ranma, some way of demonstrating to him that Akane or Nabiki was suitable marriage material.   
  
While Kasumi pondered the matter, her eyes fell upon a medical textbook that was laying on the shelves, lodged between several rarely used cookbooks. So that was where she had left the book she had borrowed from Tofu several weeks ago. She had searched for it for days, wondering where it had been misplaced. Originally, she had been fearful it had been mistakenly thrown out and she would have to pay to replace it, but then the matter of Ranma came up and distracted her to the point that she had completely forgotten about it.   
  
But now it was in front of her, undoubtedly placed there by her father or Akane in an effort to help with the cleaning. This would be an ideal time to return it. It would only take a few moments to finish mixing the vegetables. Then she could go to Dr. Tofu's while the roast cooked and be back just as it was done.  
  
Grabbing the book and her purse, Kasumi quickly left her home and headed down the street.  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Akane was sitting at the reception desk, finishing some paperwork for Dr. Tofu. The last of the patients had departed a half hour ago. After cleaning up, Tofu had sat down and spoke to Akane briefly. He mentioned something about hoping to put the finishing touches on the apparatus that had been delivered to him, but was depressed over having to complete some paperwork that, while simple, was also time-consuming. Eager for any opportunity to help Dr. Tofu, Akane insisted on completing what she could for him. The smile he directed towards her was more than enough reward. She'd have written a copy of the entire Encyclopedia Brittanica for him if it meant receiving another smile like that.  
  
She was just finishing the last sheet of papers and stapling them together when Kasumi entered the office. Instantly Akane's joy was dampened. "What brings you here?"   
  
"I have to return this to Dr. Tofu." Kasumi held the book up for Akane to see.   
  
"You can just leave it on my desk, and I'll give it to him." Akane was barely able to conceal her displeasure.  
  
"Oh no. I wouldn't want to trouble you. I'm sure you have more important things to do."  
  
"I'm done with them."  
  
"Well, it's sweet of you to offer, but since I'm the one who borrowed it, and was so late in returning it, I'd feel better if I apologized personally."  
  
Sensing Kasumi would not be turned from her course of action, Akane finally relented and informed her sister that Tofu was in back. As Kasumi left the room, Akane got up and retrieved her jacket, schoolbooks, and cane. Exiting the building, she knew that as good as her mood had been before, now it was just as dark. A feeling made twice as bad since she had been so happy before.   
  
Ideally, she had hoped Dr. Tofu would complete his device and show her how it worked, or at least revealed what it would do. However, with Kasumi visiting, he would do what he always did when she was around: stumble into things and babble incoherently. It was a tragedy in the making. Akane knew the situation he had with Kasumi was terrible, even if it all came from the basic fact that Tofu obviously liked her oldest sister. But he became a complete gibbering idiot when she was around. They couldn't have a life together, not like that. No, it would be far better for all involved if Kasumi married Ranma. Then Tofu could get over his disability and turn his attentions to someone else. Someone who would work side-by-side with him, complimenting him as both a human being and in his work as a doctor. It made perfect sense. Now if only she could convince Tofu of those simple truths...  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Looking away from the schematics, Tofu Ono finished connecting the last circuit board with the final stabilizer. Satisfied the connection would hold, he did a quick run through. The diagnostic system showed everything was operational and functioning at one hundred percent efficiency.   
  
And that was it. It was done, the project completed at last. The finished product was not much to look at. Outwardly, there were only a couple of computers lined two walls of the private addition he had behind his offices, taking up most of the space. There was nothing special about their appearance, nothing that would make a casual observer believe they were anything other than expensive medical equipment for peering into the corners of human beings where the naked eye would ultimately fail. A multitude of wires led between the machines, and a person did have to be careful not to trip over them. Again, all of the wires were inconspicuous, bearing the same black rubber insulation around them, making them appear ordinary as well.   
  
The only part of the machine that might have made someone take a second look was located in the center of the room, which was cleared away so that nothing was in it. At the edge of the empty area was a pair of identical metal stands. They stood two meters apart, opposite one another, each bore a metal and plastic projection near the top, both of them pointing to the center of the open area of the room. However, their outward appearance told nothing of what their function truly was.  
  
It had taken two months and every spare moment he had, and this was what he had to show for it: the reassembled genius of Henry Pym, his dear departed American friend, and genius it was. The machine, at least in theory, could irradiate a person with a form of energy, (which Henry had called 'Pym Particles') which allowed them to access another dimension. The theory held that, once irradiated, the person could then use the dimension to affect their very body mass by shunting it to the dimension so they could shrink in size, or to gain mass so they could become a true giant. It all depended on what setting the machine was on when the beam struck them. According to the notes that came with the device, Henry originally stumbled on the effects when experimenting with it in gas form. During the initial accident, he had several misadventures with the local ant population that had nearly killed him. But fascination overcame apprehension, and he continued working on the theories behind the shrinking until discovering exactly how the gas worked. He then spent all of his time, money, and energy into converting the accessibility of Pym Particles into machine form and permanently irradiating his cells with it, thereby eliminating the need to walk around continuously with a pack of gas canisters.   
  
There was a curious note in the papers. Henry mentioned that after his adventures in the anthill, he considered creating a device to control ants instead of perfecting the machine. However the need to be able to use Pym Particles reliably had overridden this odd desire. Tofu had to admit it was for the best. What could one do with an army of ants at his beck and call? Raid picnics?  
  
There was one problem with the device: it was untested. Henry had only just finished the prototype when a car accident claimed his life. Luckily, he had the foresight to create a will, leaving all of the equipment to Tofu, whom he trusted enough to share this important knowledge with. Tofu himself was no scientist, and probably should have turned the materials and equipment to those more knowledgeable in science that could more properly utilize both the machines and theories behind them. He should have, but he didn't.  
  
Being the only one bearing the knowledge gave Tofu a heady feeling, and Henry was the one who had sent him the device. Perhaps he knew something that Tofu didn't, and that it was best that he tested the apparatus and made certain it worked before unveiling it to the world. Of course, that would mean purchasing some lab rats and maybe cats and dogs from one of the local kennels to measure the effects of the rays on living creatures. Months would have to be spent studying the possible side effects that could result in death, or something worse, just in case Henry's theories were completely wrong. Maybe if he was lucky, Tofu could publish a paper on Pym Particles so people would know what role Henry (and to a lesser degree, himself) had in the discovery of this amazing scientific achievement that could revolutionize the world.   
  
Besides, if it worked, Tofu admitted to himself that he wanted to be the first (technically second) human to receive the abilities the particles could grant. The idea of being able to control his height appealed to the doctor in some weird way. It was silly, really, but he had always wanted to know what it would be like to be tall enough to play basketball. The sport was a real passion for him, and had he been a foot taller and more coordinated, he'd have probably tried to live his dream of entering professional sports instead of medicine. This was a one shot opportunity fate had graced him with, and there would be no second chances. He wanted to be able to actually slam-dunk just once in his life.   
  
Tofu was lost in thoughts of running rampant over the likes of Jordan and Bird when an all too familiar voice said, "Hello, Doctor."  
  
"Ka...Ka... Kasumi." Instantly Tofu's glasses fogged up and his heart raced until the sound of its trip hammer pace filled his ears. What was it he had been thinking about? Basketball? Perhaps he should pass one to Betty-chan and invite Kasumi to try-outs. He bet she could slam too.  
  
Kasumi seemed unmindful of the sudden change that had come over the doctor. "I've finally returned that book you loaned me several weeks ago." She smiled and handed him the book  
  
Tofu accepted the tome and turned a gaze of pure adulation upon it. "Thank you, Kasumi. You're such a wonderful cook." He then proceeded to rip out a page and devour it.  
  
"You're so silly." She unleashed a smile that caused a momentary pause in his eating. Kasumi had to admit, as nice as the doctor tended to be, he was easily the silliest man she had ever met. He was always acting funny around her. She could not remember the last time he had said anything serious. However, one thing he always managed to do was bring a smile to her face. He had a genuine gift for that.  
  
As she gave Tofu a bemused expression, Kasumi noticed the stands with the metal projections. She moved to the center of the room to examine the curious objects, assuming they were some sort of medical equipment. She vaguely remembered Akane mentioning that he had received some from a friend in the United States. "What's this?" she asked.  
  
Tofu looked down in his hands. "Page 180." He proceeded to eat it.  
  
Kasumi gave him another smile, and stepped closer to one of the projectors. It was an interesting device, even if she didn't understand what its purpose was.   
  
Tofu, his hunger now somewhat abated, wondered if he should ask Kasumi to play a game of basketball with him, or just stand around and bask in the glow of her presence. It suddenly occurred to him that the lighting in the room was dim, and he decided to make things brighter. He adjusted a dial and hit a button.  
  
A purplish glow formed around the projector Kasumi was staring intently at. She backed away from it uncertain of what she might have done to set it off. Turning, she was about to ask the doctor if it was supposed to glow when the world suddenly turned white and she felt herself smothered in some sort of tent that had been cut loose and thrown on top of her.  
  
Tofu turned around to ask Kasumi if she would keep score when he became vaguely aware that she was no longer in the room. Laughing as he mumbled, "Kasumi," he exited the room, hoping to find her and see if she wanted to play some hoops. It suddenly occurred to him that he could substitute Betty-chan's head for the basketball. Betty-chan was always ready to lend a helping body part to the cause. She was a good personal assistant that way.  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Kasumi struggled within the confines of the voluminous fabric she found herself suddenly enmeshed in. She had no idea what happened. One second, everything was fine. The next thing she knew there was a flash of purple and then she was trapped in this mysterious material that felt like a mass of thick woven rope. As she continued to shift through the material, she realized something else; she was completely naked. For a moment, her struggles ceased as her hands covered her nude form, then she remembered that no one that could possibly see her. She paused for a moment to try and think things through.  
  
This was all very strange. Had she been somehow rendered unconscious by the light, then stripped and thrown into the material? No. There was no moment when that could have happened. She had been disoriented by the glow, not knocked out. Besides, Dr. Tofu had been in the room, and he would never do something like that. No, there had to be some other explanation. Perhaps the machine was a device that stripped people of their clothes and put on a surgical smock to prepare them to be examined, and there had been a malfunction. It was a stretch, but Kasumi was grasping at any explanation just as a drowning person would clutch at a life preserver. Something had to have caused this bizarre situation, but she was uncertain as to what it could be, so the somewhat weak explanation she had come up with would have to suffice for the moment.  
  
Kasumi began crying out for help, shouting as loudly as she could, but her pleas went unheeded. She was not claustrophobic, but everything that was happening was just too much to handle. Feeling as though this white prison would hold her forever, she was about to give up hope when she saw a break in the material. There was a hole in the fabric, and beyond it, daylight. Hope returning, Kasumi moved as fast as she could, pushing and fighting her way through every inch of the material, which seemed to fold in on itself as she moved, allowing her to make little headway. Eventually her persistence paid off as she forced her way through and crawled out of the hole. She stood up, basking in the clear flowing air of freedom, unmindful of her unclothed state.  
  
The first indication she had that things were even worse than she had imagined was when she stood up and received her first good look at the room around her. At first, she was convinced she had somehow fallen into a fun house at some warped carnival, but then she recognized the familiar layout of the room and the giant-proportioned furniture.   
  
"But I didn't even see any bottles that said, 'Drink Me'," she protested as visions of Wonderlands danced through her head.  
  
It took a moment for the now diminutive girl to regain her composure. Panicking would solve nothing. She had to deal with the situation that had been forced upon her, no matter how strange it was. She just had to 'deal with it'. In some ways, it was similar to when her mother died. The accident had happened quickly, and there were no explanations anyone could give as to why it happened; it just had. This was the along the same lines. Sometimes things happened and you dealt with them. Back then, handling the situation meant accepting her mother's death and going on to take over many of her mother's chores and responsibilities since she was the oldest and her father was a basketcase. Now it meant being trapped in a world that had been made inexplicably big, discovering how to become just as big as everything else, and not get eaten by any giant wandering animals that might mistake her for their next meal in the process.  
  
A multitude of frenzied questions formed in her mind, and she tried to figure out answers as best she could with the minuscule amount of information on hand. Either she had shrunk or the entire room had been enlarged. In light of the fact it was she who had been bathed in the purple light, it seemed likely it was the former. How had she been shrunk? She had been standing in the open area between the two metal things, and the one she had been examining had glowed purple right before the world shifted before her eyes. Probably the machine had done it. Had anyone else been shrunk? The only other person in the room had been Dr. Tofu. She looked around, but saw no sign of him, either large or small. Had Dr. Tofu shrunk her intentionally, or had it been an accident? Her mind failed to conceive of any possible reason that he would do this to her on purpose, unless it was some sort of joke he was pulling on her, he did tend to be silly. However, if that was the case, and Kasumi thought it very unlikely, it was not funny in the slightest. If it was an accident, perhaps he was going to reverse the process. But why had he left without telling her what had happened? It made very little sense. The only other explanation that came to her was that the machine had malfunctioned, and Dr. Tofu mistakenly believed she had been disintegrated. But even that sounded far-fetched. There were too many questions and no way to get answers.  
  
A light breeze made Kasumi shiver. The first order of business was to get some clothes. Now that she thought about it, and had a chance to look at the giant 'tent' she had been trapped in, the reason for her current state of undress became obvious. Somehow, she had been shrunk, but was not lucky enough to have her clothes follow suit. Certainly she could not go about naked, even as tiny as she was, which she estimated to be no more than a half centimeter tall. Since it was unlikely Tofu had any dolls lying around, that meant trying to create some form of clothing from the materials at hand.   
  
Looking at her former dress, she began to lose hope. There was no way she could tear the fabric. It was so large now, and she was so tiny and weak. If she had a pair of scissors, or even a knife, it would have been different, but with the way things were, the situation appeared hopeless. Despite her distress, she grabbed the material and gave a prayer that she might rip out a tiny enough strip to at least cover the important parts. Taking a firm hold on the material and bracing herself, she used all of her might to try to tear off a strip of cloth.   
  
The material gave way as easily as tearing a sheet of tissue paper. The lack of resistance surprised her, and she fell onto her bare bottom with an audible thump. Rubbing her sore derriere, she looked at the strip of material in her hands. How very curious. She had been certain it would take much more strength than she could muster to tear that much material. Examining the strip of material in hand, Kasumi judged it to be barely enough to cover her chest and bottom. Hoping it was more than just a fluke, Kasumi went for a larger piece of cloth. This time it was a little harder due to the amount of material she was tearing, but it too unexpectedly gave way to her strength with only a minimum of resistance.  
  
Kasumi looked the new piece of fabric over. It was large enough to serve as a sort of shift if she wrapped it around her torso. It would end midway over her thighs, sufficient to keep her from being too exposed, though it would be a bit drafty until she could secure some underwear.  
  
She began wrapping the piece around her torso, but as she tried to bring it around her back, she encountered an unexpected obstruction. The material pushed against something protruding from her back where nothing should be. Moreover, Kasumi felt whatever the material brushed against as though it was no different from the skin on her back. Slowly, painfully slowly, the young woman turned her head to look over her shoulder, nearly paralyzed with fear of the unknown.   
  
Extending from her back were not one, but two wings. They were clear and insect-like, and had most definitely not been there before she had been rendered small. There was a slight look of trepidation on her face as the wing twitched, and now that she was paying attention to it, she could feel the wing itself moving as thought it was another limb, a thin gossamer-like one, but definitely an extension of herself. Despite the fact it was a body part completely foreign to her sensibilities, it did not feel strange, at least not in the way it should have. As impossible as it seemed, it felt natural, as though it had always been a part of her. The fear drifted away with that realization.   
  
A secret thrill replaced the vacuum left by the fear. "I wonder if I can fly?" she softly whispered. The thought became reality as the wings started fluttering at a blurring speed. The pull of gravity on her form lessened. She became light and the ground seemed to fall away from her feet. Her heart soared in conjunction with her body as she rose in the air.   
  
No fear remained, despite the fact any rational person would have been terrified at the idea that she had been shrunk, a pair of wings had mysteriously grown out of her back, and they she flying under their own power. But not for Kasumi. It was like a fantasy come true. She had always dreamed of flying like a bird when she was a small child. She wanted to be able to go anywhere and do anything, just like birds could do, living life without any boundaries, even those created by the Earth itself. Briefly she had entertained notions of becoming a pilot, but then she took her first plane ride and learned how inelegant and unreal it was. It was more like riding a train than real flying, and there could be no substitute for the real thing.  
  
But not this. This was as real as it could get, or perhaps surreal would have been a more appropriate term. Regaining her original size was irrelevant when comparing it to the far more enjoyable power of flight that was now hers to command. Once confident she could stay in the air, she tested herself by flying in basic patterns, seeing what it felt like to move back and forth, and up and down without the benefit of matter beneath her feet. The basics were quickly mastered, and soon her flight changed to include more elaborate movements. Eventually they became complicated aerial maneuvers that would have made an acrobat turn green with envy. It was as natural as walking to her, which should have been impossible. How could a person instinctively know how to fly? It made no sense, but then nothing in the situation did. She would just relax and go with the flow.   
  
Thoughts of seeking Tofu were forgotten as Kasumi paused only long enough to wrap the strip of cloth around her, being mindful of her wings, and exited the building by flying out an open window and into the wide open world beyond. Air blasted past her face, and she took a moment to adjust to the changes that a greater flight speed outdoors could give. Still, she was not afraid. Everything looked smaller, but then it was supposed to when one was flying. Being able to look down at the world below, living a life without the boundaries that pressed in on her at every side, was a sort of freedom she would bask in and never give up. She swore that as she did a cartwheel in mid-air, never.  
  
Kasumi had made it no more than several meters in her flight to freedom when a sudden pressure, like a hundred tiny needles, slipped past her skull and pierced her brain. It was like a headache brought on by eating ice cream too fast, only several times worse. Still poised in mid-air, she fluttered in pain, then started to head to the ground as she lost control. However, just as quickly as the sensation came, it vanished, taking the majority of the pain with it. Kasumi quickly righted herself and flew a far more conservative course close to the ground. All that remained of the mysterious wave of pain was a sort of scratchy feeling inside her head, similar to the leftover remnants of a hangover several hours old, just a tiny bit of queasiness that was surely drifting away.   
  
At first, Kasumi was uneasy, wondering if the headache was related to her transformation. However, there was no further pain, and the skies above beckoned her with a siren's call. Soon, caution fell away to the euphoria that only the newly discovered joy of flying could give. Wind whipped through her auburn hair as she soared high and low, enjoying a perspective of the world she never imagined existed. Multi-colored rooftops dotted the landscape from high above, rendering the neighborhood she had spent her entire life in unrecognizable. Light breezes she had never consciously registered became useful tools or bothersome impediments. Now she understood how a bird might feel, always apart from the world of ground that passed by far below.   
  
It was getting dark, which was something of a relief to her. As small as she was, it would be difficult, but far from impossible for someone to spot a small flying girl. Actual identification of her as Kasumi Tendou would be unlikely due to her size, but why take the chance and set the neighbors' gossipy tongues wagging from one end of Nerima to the other? The darkness would be her shield and hide her from prying eyes as she enjoyed herself to the fullest.  
  
Kasumi noted that the neighborhood seemed unnaturally quiet as she passed by the windows of the houses of people she knew either personally or by name. She gave in to the primitive desire of playing voyeur and spared casual glances in the first and second story windows of those who did not keep their drapes closed. Some part of her knew this was wrong, but the voice of caution was drowned out by the newfound liberation flight had bestowed upon her.   
  
Inside were a variety of scenes. Little Kenta Hiroyoshi, whom Kasumi had baby-sat for several times, was busy staring at a computer screen with a wide-eyed, slack-jawed expression. That was a bit unusual for him, since he tended to be an expressive boy, but she had heard that spending too much time next to a computer screen could do that to a person. The next house Kasumi drifted towards was the Koriyama residence. Inside her second story bedroom, Mrs. Koriyama sat staring wide-eyed and slack-jawed at the mirror next to the dresser where her make-up lay in front of her, an eyebrow pencil in hand. Kasumi thought the woman was overreacting. She didn't look that bad in make up. Not that good either, but not bad. She passed by the Orchiriou home, where the entire family of five was sitting at the dinner table, all looking wide-eyed and slack-jawed at the food on their plates before them. That was unfortunate, if the food was that bad, she'd have to loan Mrs. Orchiriou some recipes to liven up their meals.   
  
Taking her flight path away from the houses, Kasumi flew over the street, high enough overhead so that casual passers-by in the street could not easily see her. She flew low enough to make out individual faces. Standing still in the middle of the sidewalk was Mr. Ohtono, who had been an old friend of her father's in the past. He was staring wide-eyed and slack-jawed...  
  
Now that Kasumi looked around, it seemed everyone in sight was standing still, wearing the same expression on their faces. Had they all been staring at the same thing, perhaps it would have made sense, but they were looking in a variety of directions. Nerima was a bit slow at times, but the idea that everyone had been rendered comatose by the boredom was too much to believe. It seemed the unexpected silence covering the neighborhood had something to do with the inactivity of the residents in its confines.  
  
As Kasumi hovered there, wondering if this had some connection with her being shrunk, the unnatural stillness was broken by a noise in the distance. It was a strange mix of humming and tearing gelling together. The noise crept into Kasumi's awareness as it grew louder. Curious, and evidently the only one who felt like reacting to the noise, she flew down to street level in the hopes that whatever was making that sound could provide an explanation for everyone's behavior.  
  
Instinctively Kasumi flew low, next to the wall of a building, as she approached the corner where the sound was fast approaching. It would provide cover for her, even if she did not realize that was why she flew so close to the ground. She paused only a moment before turning the corner and was confronted with a most unexpected scene.   
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Mentallo and the Fixer, like Kasumi, were flying low to the ground. In Mentallo's case, it was mostly due to inexperience with his mode of transportation, as well as wanting to maintain a low profile while scanning the area for the results of his handiwork. The telepath's choice of transportation was a one person anti-gravity platform which had been one of the Fixer's first contributions to Hydra. It consisted of a fifteen centimeter thick disc with a one meter radius made of metal and plastic. Yellow lights circling the disc flashed in varying degrees of intensity as the device was propelled through the air. A light magnetic force emanated from the base of the platform, helping the pilot remain fixed on the device by utilizing the metal soles that lined his boots.  
  
"I've definitely gotten the hang of this," Mentallo boasted as he tried to execute a mid-air jump and ended up nearly crashing into a light pole.  
  
"Right." The Fixer sighed. His choice of transportation was his own personal 'Techno-Battle Pack', which looked like an oversized silver metal backpack strapped to him by a metal harness that reached under the armpits and across his chest. Two tubes pointing outward from the rear of the device shot out small jets of red flame, propelling him through the air. Though it was louder than the anti-gravity propulsion system in Mentallo's flying disc, the jets were more compact, which the Fixer preferred since that meant more room for his weapons. A variety of multi-functional weapons were laced through the entirety of the battle pack, each one capable of dealing with any aggressive situation in a wide variety of ways.   
  
In the eventuality the pack proved insufficient, he had a wide leather weapons belt that held a variety of cylindrical objects that resembled grenades. Also attached to the belt was a specially designed gun that was linked up to the targeting computer in his helmet, as well as having its own independent tracking system. And those merely represented his second line of defense. He had the firepower of several army platoons draped on his person. He could take on a tank division single-handed and probably end up victorious. Having such power at his command made his heart race.  
  
"Looks like everyone's under the influence. My influence." Mentallo snickered at his own little joke. "You are recording all of this, aren't you?"  
  
The Fixer pointed to the set of goggles and headset attached to his helmet. "Inside this multi-optics headgear is a super speed digital camera that is recording everything that I see. Linked up as it is with my Techno Pack, it has a sensor suite that would make the JSDF's best surveillance planes turn green with envy."  
  
"Whatever, just don't look my way with it. I don't want anyone to see me in this." The oversized mental intensifier looked even more stupid on Mentallo's head than it had just sitting on the rack. It didn't matter how successful the test was if he was made a laughing stock of the organization in the process.   
  
On the bright side, the test was going successfully. From their observations, everyone inside the district of Nerima was now fully under Mentallo's domination. Even those entering from outside the initial target zone quickly fell under his influence as well. One more pass through the area, and they would have enough information to conclude their mission and write up their report.   
  
Mentallo took note of his partner stopping a moment to do a close up on one of the people on the street that was staring off into space. Distracted, he continued hovering, turning the corner of a street, only to come face-to-tiny-face with an unexpected factor in their experiment.   
  
"Oh my!" Kasumi nearly collided with the gaudily-dressed flying man.   
  
Staring at the tiny girl with wings that hovered directly in front of him, Mentallo blinked once under his visor, then sighed. "I knew I never should have listened to Honaga, but noooo. He just had to go on and on about how drugs would make me forget all about Madoka. 'Just try the brown acid once', he says, and now look at what I get: flashbacks a year later."  
  
"What are you mumbling about?" The Fixer asked as he turned away from the person he had been observing.  
  
"Oh, I'm just hallucinating about a cute fairy flying in front of me."  
  
The Fixer let out an irritated moan. "Are you still obsessing about homosexuals? Didn't the Imperial Hydra warn you... Holy!" He focused his telescopic lenses on the tiny girl flying in front of Mentallo. "It is a fairy!"  
  
That shocked Mentallo out of his stupor. "Wait, you mean can see it too? It's not a hallucination?"  
  
"I'm definitely getting readings on the object flying in front of you. It's real."  
  
Embarrassed by the attention she was suddenly receiving, Kasumi blushed. It took her a moment to compose herself and remember the purpose of her flight. "Ah, excuse me, but would either of you happen to know who's responsible for making everyone just stand around? It's not you two, is it? It's really rude to do this to people, you know."  
  
"The fairy talks, too." Mentallo continued staring at her in abject fascination.   
  
"Capture it for study," the Fixer ordered.   
  
"Right." Mentallo brought his platform forward to grab Kasumi.  
  
A wave of panic momentarily overwhelmed the girl and she froze in mid-air. From her perspective, it was a giant's hand that sought to engulf her within its grasp. Rather than fleeing from the Hydra agent's awkward lunge, which she had ample time to do, she held out her tiny hands to ward off his own.   
  
"Keep back!" Kasumi cried. As panic gripped her mind and her heart raced like a triphammer, a tingling sensation built up in her forearms. Instinctively, she pointed at Mentallo. There was a strange feeling surged from her forearms and all the way down to her hand and fingers.   
  
A crimson blast of energy leaped from her hands, catching Mentallo with a glancing blow to his shoulder. Despite the fact the shot barely struck the telepath, there was still enough force to send him spinning off his disc and to the ground five feet below, were he landed on his back. He tried standing up, but fell back down, stunned by the combination of energy and the fall.  
  
The Fixer looked past his fallen partner to the people standing in the street. The slack-jawed expressions were starting to disappear, slowly being replaced by blinking and the closing of mouths.  
  
"Snap out of it and reestablish mental contact with the populace!" the Fixer shouted as he drew a gun from his belt. A narrow cable connected it with his multi-optics helmet. With his weapon currently in battle mode, a head's up display appeared in his goggles, a targeting sight dominating his vision. He lined the sights upon the flying girl, barely able to manage a general lock onto her because of her small form. He fired four times, sending a quartet of 'tracker shells,' of his own design, after her. Once locked onto a target, the tiny computers in the slender projectiles would follow until they hit an object, presumably what they were aimed at. They were like tiny heat-seeking missiles, and could even perform intricate maneuvers if they had enough time to react and reacquire their target.   
  
Due to the sophistication of the tracker shells, they moved far slower than normal bullets. Kasumi saw the projectiles coming right for her, so she flew as fast as her tiny wings could manage. Despite the insect-like appearance of the wings, Kasumi found that when pressed, she could fly far faster than any insect, though her pursuers were faster.   
  
Her flight took her past a fire hydrant, and she ducked behind it. Her stratagem, as basic as it was, worked. The computers in the projectiles had difficulty following a target as small as Kasumi. The first two were unable to reacquire her and slammed into the hydrant. The metal shattered under the force of the miniature missiles, cracking the casing and causing a blast of water to spray straight up in the air. The pressure from the water caught another of the shells, sending it off course and into a tree, its fuel expended.   
  
The fourth tracker shell evaded the deluge of water and reacquired its target, heading right for her. The sight of the huge object, which appeared to be the size of a rocket to her altered perspective, filled her vision as it whipped towards her at deadly speed. Calling on every ounce of strength she had, she twisted her body away from the speeding missile. The projectile rushed past her, the heated surface of the metal gently caressing her flank and nearly catching on her tiny garb and ripping it from her body.   
  
The tracker shell continued onward, striking an empty store and shattering the wide picture window in front. The blast it unleashed destroyed the displays within. Kasumi cringed when she saw the remains of a mannequin that was hit dead-on by the shell.  
  
It was only after the last shell had narrowly missed her, the heat from the exhaust still lingering in the air, that Kasumi came to grips with exactly what had happened. Those two men had to be responsible for what had happened to Nerima. Even worse, they had attacked her with no provocation. It was the first time since fifth grade anyone had tried to harm her, and even then it was just to shake her down for her lunch money. But these people had tried to capture her, and when she defended herself, tried to kill her. Now Kasumi found herself overwhelmed with an emotion she had not felt since her mother died, at least with this sort of intensity.   
  
She was very, very, angry.  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Satisfied his genius had taken care of their opposition, the Fixer rushed to Mentallo's side. Pulling out a small stick from his harness, he gripped it in both hands and snapped it in half. He waved the broken object under Mentallo's nose, causing his companion to give a start.   
  
Mentallo's eyes blinked behind his visor as he reoriented himself to the world around him. "Whoa! She might look like a fairy, but she stings like a wasp."  
  
Seeing his partner was fully revived, the Fixer said, "Get these people back under your control before they break free and figure out who wiped their brains out for the last half-hour."  
  
It took only a moment for Mentallo to reestablish control over the populace and returned them to their previous mindless state. Finished, he turned to his partner, still trying to get the nauseating fumes from out of his nose. "What was that? A super-reviver gas you designed? An un-unconsciousnator device?"  
  
The Fixer shook his head. "Just regular smelling salts. Sometimes it's the simplest tools that are the most appropriate for the job."  
  
Mentallo pointed over his partner's shoulder. "Then what are you going to shoot her down with next? A slingshot?"  
  
The Fixer looked in disbelief at the tiny girl who had somehow evaded his tracker shells and was giving him a decidedly evil eye.   
  
"I am very upset with your behavior," Kasumi softly intoned, hands on her hips.  
  
"Can you take her out?" the Fixer asked.  
  
Mentallo sent out a telepathic command and Kasumi felt the scratching increase in her skull. She wavered for a moment, but then forced herself to concentrate. Using a song she had learned in school as the base her focus would anchor upon, she expanded her consciousness, forcing the presence trying to affect her mind out.  
  
The defeat confounded Mentallo. "No. I can feel her mind, but it's hard to make out. It's like it's too tiny to get a hold on."  
  
"Then we do it the old-fashioned way." The Fixer's hand was a blur as he pulled one of the spheres from his belt and hurled it in Kasumi's direction.  
  
Seeing the ball would miss her by a couple of meters, which seemed like a couple of houses away to Kasumi, she pointed her hands once again towards the pair and tried to make the strange energy burst come forth again. It took a moment, but the tingling sensation began to make its way through her forearms and towards her hands.   
  
Suddenly, the ball stopped in mid-air instead of sailing past. The unexpected change in its trajectory caught Kasumi's attention, and she paused to give it a closer look. It was jet black with a smooth glassy surface, the only flaw in its texture were two strips of wires embedded under the sphere's glazed exterior. They circled completely around the object; one towards the top and the other towards the bottom, each was the same distance away from the nearest end, giving perfect symmetry to the odd design.   
  
The sphere began to spin on its axis, increasing its speed until it was nothing more than a blur.   
  
As it spun, Kasumi felt something tugging at her, as though the object was drawing her closer. She tried to fly away, but no matter how hard she beat her wings, she felt herself pulled ever closer to towards the sphere.  
  
"It's a portable gravity well," the Fixer informed her. "Its area of effect is limited, but it's particularly useful for making bullets, grenades, and even small rockets veer off course. And as you can tell, it's also useful for taking care of pesky insects."  
  
Kasumi saw he was telling the truth. Other objects, such as small clumps of dirt, stray bits from the fire hydrant, and even insects no larger than her began to succumb to the pull and shot past her and toward the sphere. They ended up mashed into the surface of the metal object. She beat her wings twice as hard, but it was to no avail as the speed with which she was being drawn to the sphere doubled. Unable to fight the force, she found herself pulled end over end towards the miniature gravity well.  
  
As the distance closed to less than a meter, Kasumi knew soon she would be drawn in and end up flattened across the spinning object's surface. During one of her flips, she caught sight of an open spot through the debris, revealing surface of the sphere. She fired a bolt of energy towards it before being tossed head over heels again. Luck was with her as the bolt hit the sphere dead on. Even as compacted and dense as the object was, it cracked open under the onslaught of Kasumi's 'sting'.  
  
With the sudden cessation of the object's pull, Kasumi found herself flying straight to the ground, the direction she had been pointed in while still trying to escape the sphere. She was barely able to reorient herself in time, pulling out of her dive before crashing headfirst into the earth like a diminutive lawn dart.   
  
The Fixer scowled at the failure of another device. "This one's sure to get her," he swore to himself. "Jericho Tube." In response to the verbal command, his Techno Pack brought a microphone out from the front of his harness and rose it to his lips. Simultaneously, a rod shot upward from the back of the pack. Rounded metal unfolded from each side of the rod. The metal sheets blossomed like a flower until they met above the rod, locking into place and forming into an elliptical disc.  
  
Kasumi was preparing to fly right at the duo when the Fixer gave a shout. His voice was amplified over a hundred times by the antenna, the waves of sound striking Kasumi with physical force. She was swatted down from the air and towards the ground, where she skidded across the street several meters before coming to a stop.   
  
As hard and as far as Kasumi skidded across the ground, she still managed to regain her footing relatively quickly. She was surprised by her resilience. If she had been sent across that much asphalt at normal size, especially wearing so little clothing, she would have been in a great deal of pain and probably been unable to move. But aside from a bit of soreness, she felt fine. She suffered only a few minor scrapes to her legs and arms, rather than the deep gashes and whole patches of skin that probably should have been missing.   
  
Just as she stood fully upon her bare feet, the Fixer grabbed her securely in his grip, pinning her arms to her side. He directed a haughty smirk to his catch. "Looks like I got you.. No chance of stinging me with those nasty little arms of you pinned, is there, my little Wasp?"  
  
Despite knowing struggle was futile, Kasumi tried to squirm. If she managed to work an arm free, she could shoot the man with one of those 'stings' as he had dubbed them. To her surprise she was easily able to force the man's hand open, despite the tremendous difference in size. Released, she flew high and out of his ability to snare her a second time.  
  
"How did you do that?" the Fixer gasped out, clutching his hand in pain. She had torn herself out of his grip as though she were as strong as a normal person rather than one less than a centimeter in height.  
  
Seeing the results of her handiwork, it occurred to Kasumi that perhaps she somehow maintained her 'normal' strength despite her diminutive stature. It would explain how she could force her way so easily out of the man's grasp and tear off the strips of her dress. However, there were more important issues to resolve before testing her theory. "Take that!" she cried out as she blasted the rod and circle components of the Jericho Tube from the Fixer's Techno Pack, destroying the weapon beyond repair.  
  
The Fixer held his hand over his face to ward off a second blast, but it never came. He saw just through his fingers his opponent go flying off through the air quite involuntarily, as though she had been slapped by a giant invisible hand. He stared at where she had been in surprise, then turned to his partner.  
  
Mentallo gave off a low moan and held his head as best as he could with the mental amplifier perched on his skull. "I hate having to use my telekinesis like that, especially in a widespread arc."   
  
"You saved my butt." The Fixer activated the radar unit in his pack and tried homing in on the 'Wasp's' current location. Common sense dictated that with their mission completed, both he and his partner should return immediately to their headquarters. Pride overruled that. There was no way he was going to let the flying pest get away with defacing his property and destroying his brilliant and dangerous weapons.  
  
"That's what partners are for. God, my head is killing me." Mentallo's hand went into one of the pockets of his outfit and pulled out a bottle of aspirin. He tried pressing down and twisting the top off, first to the left, and then to the right. Failing to remove it, he tried reversing his actions, all to no avail.   
  
The Fixer held out his hand for the bottle. "Let me. I'm good at getting those childproof caps off. It comes from having skilled hands in designing all of these complex weapon systems."   
  
Mentallo handed him the bottle. The Fixer tried pushing and twisting to get the cap off, but he fared no better than his partner had.   
  
"I thought you said you had soft hands," Mentallo winced from another spear of pain to his brain.  
  
"I do." Again the Fixer tried again and he still failed, even after he hit the top of the bottle against his harness a few times. "Fine, I was reluctant to do this, but I see I have no choice." He whipped out a device that vaguely resembled a flashlight.  
  
"What's that?"  
  
"Automatic Childproof Cap Remover."  
  
"You actually designed a complex device for something as simple as that?"  
  
"Don't laugh. If I had come up with this before signing a contract with Hydra, I could have made millions that way instead of resorting to join a terrorist organization."  
  
"It looks expensive."  
  
"Each unit's retail price is somewhere around three hundred American dollars."  
  
"What?! You think people would pay that much for something that has only one purpose, and a simple one at that?"  
  
"Oh, I think so, if they want what's inside the bottle, " The Fixer waved the container temptingly at Mentallo. The tablets made a hollow noise as they rolled around in the half-empty container.   
  
Each rattle seemed to make Mentallo's heart (and head) long for them more. "Good point. Get that thing open. I'll pay you later."  
  
"Right." The Fixer pointed the end of the Automatic Childproof Cap Remover at the top of the bottle. A light shone from the end and highlighted the container in an eerie red glow. The cap spun around in several circles. The Fixer gave a satisfied smile, and turned off the light.   
  
"Voila!" he announced as he twisted the top.   
  
The cap spun uselessly in a circle as it remained attached to the bottle.  
  
"Why you little!" The Fixer shouted at the bottle as he proceeded to beat it against the ground, his anger against his flying foe temporarily forgotten as a much more insidious opponent was presented before him.  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Kasumi flew on, dazed by the powerful telekinetic blow. The invisible blast had caught her completely off-guard, and she had suffered fully from its effects. It was obvious she could not fight both men alone and save her neighbors from becoming a bunch of mindless drooling zombies. There was no telling what sort of havoc those two strangely dressed men -who were almost certainly 'super-villains' like she had seen on the news lately- had wrecked on the city. She might be the only person left in the entire country who still possessed her identity and the ability to resist. But she wasn't strong enough to do so and win. Maybe it was her size. If she could use the machine to make herself big again, while keeping her wings and energy blasts, perhaps she would be strong enough to defeat those two menaces, or at least drive them off and free all of the people.  
  
And then a horrifying thought occurred to Kasumi. What if the effects were irreversible, or if they became permanent after a period of time? She had to take a chance and act fast. The first order of business was to get big and try to take the bad guys on at full size; it was her duty to her neighbors, family, and friends.  
  
She headed back toward Tofu's clinic. During her return flight, she kept a wary eye behind her, but there seemed to be no sign of pursuit. That was a break, and she needed every one she could get. She would have time to come up with a plan after she made herself larger. She was still in the process of actually coming up with a battle strategy, a task she had no familiarity with, when her eyes alighted on someone in her flight path. Delighted at the unexpected encounter, she veered down towards the man.  
  
"Dr. Tofu! Dr. Tofu!" Kasumi cried out as she flew up to his face and looked past his glasses and into distant eyes. Now that she thought about it, aside from the slight bit of drool from his open mouth, and the fact he tended to make a lot more noise, the look wasn't all that different from the one he sported most of the time.   
  
She cried out his name again, trying to snap him out of the trance. She was about to give up hope when his jaws began to twitch. Again she cried out, and this time he closed his mouth. His lips began to move. He spoke so softly his voice nearly blended in with the breeze as he managed one word, "Kasumi."  
  
"Yes, Doctor, it's me," she said, delighted she had gotten through to him. "I need your help. I need to get big again. To grow up to my normal size."  
  
The distant look was still in his eyes, but now there was the shadow of an emotion on his face. "Grow?"  
  
"Yes, grow. I need to grow big and keep my wings so I can blast those awful men who are doing this to everyone. Can you help me do that?"  
  
"Grow." There was a hint of finality in the word this time.   
  
Sensing this was the best she could manage, Kasumi said, "Yes. Come with me back to your office so I can grow." She flew on ahead of Tofu, urging him onward.   
  
"Kasumi," he intoned and began to follow, his glasses fogging up ever so slightly with each step he took.  
  
The distance to the clinic was not far, though it took five times longer than normal to get there due to the doctor's plodding pace. Several times he almost stopped, but all it took was Kasumi flying up and pleading with him to prod him onward once again. Eventually, the duo ended up in the lab behind the clinic, next to the equipment that had turned Kasumi's world upside down.  
  
"Can you make me grow again?" Kasumi asked, constantly repeating the word Tofu seemed fixated on.  
  
"Grow," he said, moving over to a dial marked, 'Mass Increase,' at one end, and 'Mass Decrease,' at the other. It was currently on the latter, so he spun it to the left, almost to the maximum of the increase side.  
  
Kasumi flew up to it, reading the English words. "Oh, if I had been paying attention, I would have seen that and figured it out for myself." She looked over some of the other controls Tofu was fooling with. All of them were labeled, at least the important ones. If she had calmed down in the beginning, it would have been simplicity itself to revert to her true size.   
  
With the moment of truth upon her, Kasumi found herself reluctant to return to her normal height. Being able to fly, even if she was tiny, had been the most fun she experienced in ages. The best time she had period. Flying, and being small enough to do so in anonymity, gave her a way to escape all of the frustrations and tedium that came from taking care of her family and acting as the responsible member of her household. True, she had wings sprouting out of her back, but they were more neat than scary. And she still had her normal strength, if not more than usual, at that height. And then there were those mysterious blasts with which she could defend herself. Changes, and in her opinion, all for the better.  
  
Even the fighting, as much as she usually avoided confrontation, had been exhilarating. Kasumi operated under no illusions as to what she was: weak. Nabiki, Ranma, her father, even most people on the street could easily overpower her. Someone had stolen her purse last month when she had gone out shopping. All she could manage was a shout for help. Luckily, the police were within earshot and caught the perpetrator before he had made it more than a block. But if she had these fantastic powers back then, she could have taken care of the matter and caught the thief for the police instead of the other way around.  
  
That line of thinking was silly, Kasumi told herself. She could not remain small forever. She had her family to take care of. There was also the everyday functioning and interacting with the rest of humanity. She could hardly expect to do so when she was the size of a bug. There was no real choice in the matter. She would miss this one brush with having abilities far beyond those of normal people, but it had to be sacrificed for the good of everyone.   
  
"Grow."  
  
The word snapped Kasumi out of her reverie. While she had been lost in thought, Tofu had been busy. The machine was humming now, and the projections, which had baptized her in their purple light, were now gathering once again. Only this time it was Tofu, rather than Kasumi, who was in the middle of them.   
  
"Dr. Tofu, no!" Kasumi shouted.   
  
It was too late as the purple rays struck the doctor, bathing him completely in their eerie light. Instantly, his mass began to increase as he grew in size. Kasumi's eyes turned as wide as saucers as she witnessed firsthand the power of Pym Particles. Tofu's normal five eleven frame became tripled. His clothing tore, shredded into dozens of pieces as his head brushed against the ceiling. He continued to grow, increasing to twenty-four feet. The roof gave out then as his head, then shoulders and chest burst through the top and destroying it. He gave no sign of feeling the effects of driving through the plaster and brick of his addition. And still he grew, expanding to the size of forty feet before at last his growth stopped. Dr. Tofu stood alone in the rubble, the slack-jawed expression at last disappearing as his senses slowly returned.   
  
As the building collapsed, the machines sparked and whined as shattered pieces of roof smashed the equipment beyond repair. Kasumi was forced to fly with every ounce of speed she could summon to avoid falling pieces of brick and mortar. It was a difficult flight, but she managed it, exiting the building and suffering no injuries. The fight with Mentallo and the Fixer had been long enough ago that she had recovered her energy. She was in perfect health, despite the beating she had taken. Again she wondered if her recuperative powers had been increased as well when she was smaller.   
  
But that was only given a brief thought. Once clear of the falling debris, her concern was only for Dr. Tofu. She blamed herself for his predicament. It had been obvious he was not thinking clearly, yet she had dragged him all the way to his office and forced him to help her. Yet when they got there, all she thought about was second guessing herself rather than keeping an eye on him. Now the equipment was smashed into hundreds of tiny pieces and buried under rubble. It was obviously irreparable. Worse, poor Dr. Tofu was now going to be stuck as a giant, even as she was trapped at insect size. It was all her fault.   
  
Her heart weighing heavily upon her, she flew around the remains of the building and towards Tofu. She looked up at his face, which was now starting to regain some of its previous animation. Hoping his upward explosion through the top of the roof had not harmed him, she examined his body for any injuries  
  
"Oh... my." Kasumi quickly covered her eyes, a shudder spreading down her spine. Tofu had gotten larger in every sense of the word, and with his clothes torn to shreds among the debris, she could assess that there was nothing physically wrong with him and all the body parts that men should have were present. It wasn't the first time she has seen that particular part. Back in high school a friend had talked her into being naughty once and they had peeked in the boys' showers after baseball practice. But it had been nothing like this. What was before her eyes now was inhuman, and downright disturbing.   
  
Bracing herself, Kasumi closed her eyes and flew as high as she could. Once convinced she was well past the area causing embarrassment, she dared to open them, making sure she was looking up at the time. Full awareness had returned to Tofu and he was looking around, obviously confused. Kasumi felt it was her responsibility to explain exactly what had happened.  
  
Kasumi's assessment of Tofu's state of mind was correct. He looked around at the small world before him. His ability to react to the situation was better than Kasumi's initially was, he knew damn well this was the result of the Pym Particles, but the question was how had it happened? The last thing he remembered was making the final adjustments to the machine, and then Kasumi had come in...well that explained everything. Obviously he had lost it and accidentally activated the machine, but what of Kasumi?   
  
Tofu looked down at the ruins of the building at his feet. "Kasumi!" he bellowed out with lungs far larger than their original size.  
  
"No need to shout, Doctor," the disembodied voice of Kasumi called out.   
  
Tofu spun his head back and forth. That was odd. By all rights, if he was hearing Kasumi's voice, it should have been near the ground, not near him. "Where are you?"  
  
"I'm right here."  
  
The voice sounded as though it was right in front of him, but still no one was present. It made no sense, and he was about to say so, when the reality of the situation hit him full force. The answer was obvious; he could hear Kasumi's disembodied voice next to his ear because Kasumi didn't have a body anymore. The building had crushed her.  
  
"Oh, Kasumi!" he wailed, burying his face in his hands.  
  
"Yes, Doctor?"  
  
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I can't believe how foolish I was. I should have been more careful with you around. It must have hurt you so badly."  
  
"Not really. The change was quite painless. Actually, I feel pretty good. Much more lively than I have in a very long time."  
  
"Lively?" The word stabbed his soul, and he began bawling at the top of his lungs.  
  
Kasumi marked that the deluge would have done her father proud. Trying to regain his attention, Kasumi shouted at the top of her lungs, "Stop crying, Dr. Tofu! Really, I don't mind being this way!"  
  
"You're so forgiving," he lamented. Truly she was the most wonderful woman in the world. If only he had possessed the courage to have told her in life instead of losing his mind around her and acting the part of the fool.   
  
"Well, I admit that I enjoy having the ability to fly. The wings aren't bad at all. They're sort of neat."  
  
She was an angel now. They had already given her wings. He always knew such a sweet girl would end up there someday. "But you shouldn't have passed on so soon," he began crying again.  
  
"Passed on? I shouldn't have passed on what so soon?" Kasumi asked.  
  
Tofu interrupted his crying briefly. "You know, going on the final journey that all of us go on."  
  
"To where, Hawaii? I already went there when I was in high school. It was our senior trip."  
  
"No, I mean, you know, going to the afterlife."  
  
"Why would I want to go there? Is there some side effect of being small that's going to kill me?"  
  
"Being... small?" Tofu barely got out.  
  
"Yes, Doctor. I'm small and can fly now. Your machine shrunk me. Don't you remember that before you grew, or is your new height affecting your memory?"  
  
"The machine shrunk you, and you're not dead?" he blurted out with more hope in his voice than had ever been there before.  
  
"That's right, Doctor. Hold absolutely still and I think you can see me." She flew directly in front of his right eye, which looked as though it was the size of a small car. "Can you see me?"  
  
"No, I suspect I'm too big," Tofu admitted while being overjoyed at the reports of Kasumi's death being greatly exaggerated.   
  
"I'll show you something I think you can see." Kasumi flew several meters away and released one of her stings.   
  
Tofu was clearly able to see the energy blast. "How did you do that? And how can you fly? You said you had wings?"  
  
"You mean you don't know? But it was your machine that did this to me."  
  
"Ah," Tofu was reluctant to tell the truth, but couldn't find the ability to lie to Kasumi, especially since he was the one responsible for her condition. "Actually the equipment is from an American friend of mine. He died and left it to me. It's still experimental. If you have wings and the ability to generate and discharge some form of bio-energy, the odds are Henry's theories about possible mutations are true, even though he thought there was an insignificant chance of it. We'll have to examine you thoroughly and make sure there aren't any harmful side effects." He prayed there were none. Henry's notes had believed there was a less than a tenth of a percent chance of a human's body mutating when irradiated with the particles, but mutations were random, and what appeared beneficial at first might not be so over the long term.  
  
Unaware of Tofu's fears, Kasumi found herself delighted at finally having the facts behind her current condition revealed. Her joy at knowing the truth was quickly dismissed as more pressing matters were at hand. "That will have to wait. First we have to take care of those awful super-villains that made everyone in the neighborhood into mindless zombies."  
  
Tofu scratched his head in confusion. Kasumi made a mental note to inform him he should start shaving his arm pits. It looked like jungle growth forming there, with vines and everything.   
  
"What super-villains?" he asked.  
  
"The ones who made you a mindless zombie before the machine made you big and broke you out of your trance. I'll tell you all about it, but first you need to find a bed sheet to cover yourself up with."  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"Look down," Kasumi said as she chose to look up at the sky.   
  
"Oops." For a moment, he was going to cover himself up, but then a wave of pride shot through him. He was not what women would call a 'man among men,' in certain departments, which had always bothered his ego, especially when it came to courting women. As it was now, he was beyond doubt the 'manliest' man of them all, even if it was simply because all of his overall dimensions had increased.   
  
He was still trying to resist the urge to preen when two figures came flying into view.  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
"I can't believe you had to use that explosive gel to pop the top off," Mentallo said.  
  
"I can't believe I had to use two doses before it worked." The Fixer continued watching the miniature readout on his radar system. Supposedly the flying girl had been in this area before ducking in a building and out of sight. Now that he had finally managed to get aspirin for his partner, they had time to capture the diminutive pest before calling it a night and heading back to base.   
  
However, the sight that greeted the Hydra agents as they came into view stunned both men speechless. They paused in mid-flight, staring in awe at what was before them.   
  
Mentallo finally managed to say said, "I don't know about you, but I suddenly feel very inadequate."  
  
"Put a circus tent on or something, you giant freak!" the Fixer shouted.  
  
Thoroughly embarrassed, Tofu bent down and grabbed a tarp that had been placed over his neighbor's pool. It was a simple matter to tie it around his waist, preventing anyone from making out any further intimate details.  
  
"Why isn't that giant man standing around drooling?" the Fixer asked his partner.  
  
Mentallo reached out with his mind. "It's kind of hard to get a grasp on him, like the girl. It must be a size thing. Although now that I'm probing closer, he isn't as fuzzy around the edges as she is. Let's see if I can put him under my domination."   
  
Mentallo quadrupled his efforts. Instantly, Tofu felt pressure like a five pound weight applied directly to his brain. Waves of fog seemed to cloud over his vision, similar to the effect of seeing Kasumi, but with a black stain tainting it. Realizing he was losing his ability to think, and that it would leave Kasumi vulnerable to the duo's hands, Tofu found the will to concentrate and try to force the presence out of his mind. The contest of wills was fierce, with Mentallo's experience giving him the edge. For a brief moment he had total domination, but the hold on Tofu's mind slipped, as much due to the difficulties of contacting the physically altered mind of Tofu as the doctor's will.  
  
And then the contest was over. Mentallo withdrew his presence. "No go. His mind is too hard to grasp."  
  
The Fixer adjusted his Techno pack. "Then we do it the hard way again. The giant man is mine. You take care of the girl."  
  
While the duo formulated their battle plan, Kasumi acted. Seeing Tofu sway under the telepathic assault, she flew closer to him. "Are you all right?"  
  
Tofu blinked his eyes clear. The background psychic 'static' from Mentallo's widespread domination wave was still echoing in his skull, but the direct assault had failed. "I will be now. Look out!"  
  
Kasumi darted away as the Fixer and Mentallo rose towards them. Kasumi flew away from Tofu, hoping to draw both opponents away from him. However, only Mentallo followed.   
  
Mentallo increased his disc's speed and drew closer. "You're pretty nimble, Fly Girl, but you can't escape me."   
  
"I think I prefer being called Wasp. Fly Girl has all sorts of connotations I don't want associated with me."  
  
"How about Splat Girl instead?" Mentallo only used a small amount of telekinesis, which would not hurt anywhere near as much as the widespread force he had hit her with earlier, and hurled a flowerpot from a nearby windowsill. Kasumi dodged the unconventional missile with ease. The telepath hurled a second and third pot at the same time, both of which she evaded. Tired of having things thrown at her, she retaliated by firing one of her stings at Mentallo, but he dodged it using the flying disc.  
  
"Nice moves. Now try this." Instead of only hurling one or two objects at the same time at her, Mentallo braced himself for some serious pain as he created a storm of items by using the debris from the addition Tofu had destroyed during his unexpected growth. Again Kasumi found herself dodging and blasting flying objects in an effort to keep from getting splattered.   
  
During the start of the fight between telepath and human insect, the Fixer found himself opening combat by flying up towards his opponent in order to stand on at least semi-even ground with him. Once he had drawn closer to the forty-foot Goliath, the genius began to have second thoughts. The man was even larger than the statue in front of 'Big Boy's.'  
  
Refusing to be intimidated, the Fixer opened up by firing four stun discuses with depleted uranium cores from his Techno Pack, and hit Tofu fully in the chest. Together they had the combined force to knock over an elephant, but Tofu withstood what would have been bonebreaking force to a normal person. The impacts did cause him pain, and struck with enough power to cause bruises to form immediately upon abused flesh, but after teetering for only a moment, he quickly righted himself. In retaliation, he brought his hand up and snatched his surprised opponent out of mid-air in unknowing parity to what the Fixer had done to Kasumi less than half an hour earlier.   
  
The Fixer's surprise was brief. Rather than trying to muscle out of the grip, an impossible task for him, he doubled the intensity of the jets on his pack. The reaction was instantaneous as Tofu growled in pain and released his hold, drawing back his burned hand.   
  
A smile broadened on the Fixer's features. His plan for his second attack was abruptly halted when, instead of remaining in the air, he heard his jets cough in protest and he jerked in the sky. Then the cough ceased, and he plummeted several feet. The decent stopped just as quickly as the jets re-ignited.   
  
A quick system analysis showed the jets were malfunctioning, undoubtedly because the Fixer had fired them in the enclosed space of his opponent's grip and caused them to misfire. He quickly landed before his engines cut out a second time. Despite the setback, the Hydra agent was a picture of composure. Negation of his ability to fly was hardly a concern. He had other weapons which would more than level the field of combat in every sense of the word.   
  
Tofu had finished assessing the burns to his hand, which, to his expert eyes, appeared to be superficial, when a small ball shot forth from a concealed launcher hidden in the shoulder of the Fixer's pack. The shot was on the mark, an easy task considering the size of the target, and struck the giant man in the face. The instant the ball made contact with Tofu's flesh, it expanded to unleash a series of densely compacted tungsten bands that proceeded to wrap themselves around his head. The bands wrapped tight, like giant pythons, and blinding as well as blocking up his nose and mouth.   
  
"I call those rubber bombs," the Fixer bragged. All that was left now was for his opponent to suffocate, then he could assist his partner. Sparing a glance in Mentallo's direction, he saw the fight between telepath and flying girl was currently locked in a stalemate. The girl was continuing to evade or blast all of the objects thrown at her while being too distracted to blast her opponent. It was only a matter of time until she made a wrong turn or the pain became too great for Mentallo to bear. Something had to give.  
  
The Fixer returned his attention to Tofu. Much to the genius's astonishment, the giant was able to dig his fingers under the bands and pull them outward, despite their tremendous tensile strength. There was a snapping sound as one of the bands gave. The sound was soon joined by an identical one, and then a third and fourth. With so many bands destroyed, the rest went limp, unable to maintain the hold on their target.  
  
"This isn't good." The Fixer backed away in caution.   
  
Only several meters away, Kasumi finally had fortune smile her way as there was a temporary ebb in the storm of objects. Seeing her foe sway in obvious pain, she released two quick blasts in his direction, silently noting that both her forearms were starting to feel strained and a burning sensation was creeping through them. It was the same tired sensation she felt when she went swimming for too long. In the back of her mind, she wondered if she was reaching the limit of the number of blasts she could unleash. She hoped she did not find out the hard way.  
  
The two blasts she loosed were on target, however Mentallo recovered enough to dodge shakily with his flying disc. Rather than hitting him, one of the blasts struck the mental amplifying helmet, damaging the casing and causing sparks to fly. The second blast struck his flying disc dead center, punching a hole clean through its propulsion unit. Bereft of the power of flight, Mentallo fell. Fortunately for him, he had been staying close to the ground, and only fell a single meter and landing on his bottom once again.   
  
Sensing an opportunity to finish the fight, Kasumi flew in low. She was just about to unleash another blast at close range, one Mentallo would have no chance of dodging, when she heard the familiar voice of the Fixer to her right.  
  
"Let's see how you like my version of bug spray, Wasp!" Vents from the pack sent out a billowing gray cloud directly at Kasumi, completely engulfing her. "Gotcha!"  
  
"KASUMI!" Tofu's voice boomed louder than a dozen megaphones as he witnessed the young woman's fate. Before the Fixer could hope to react, Tofu closed the distance between them in two steps and caught him with a powerful kick.   
  
The Fixer's fate was somewhat better than a football's in a similar position. The Hydra agent turned just enough to catch the majority of the blow on his backpack. Regardless, enough force was transmitted through the pack and into the body wearing it to send him flying. The Fixer went skidding across a lawn and through a wooden fence before the impromptu flight was arrested by a large oak, which caused his pack to sustain a second hard blow within a handful of seconds. Sparks shot out of his Techno Pack, and the readout in his goggles showed that nearly twenty percent of his systems were down.   
  
"And there's more on the way," the Fixer moaned as Tofu approached him, obviously intent on punting him even further away, most likely somewhere around China. With no time to consider which weapon might come close to enabling him to survive the blow, Hiroshi Karigiri did the first thing that came to mind and prayed.   
  
Just as Tofu drew his foot back, he let out a scream of pain and clutched his head, digging his fingers deep into his scalp. Wide-eyed at the turn of events, the Fixer could scarcely believe his luck as the foot returned to the ground and Tofu swayed on his feet, obviously stunned senseless.   
  
"I got him!" shouted Mentallo as he pumped his fist towards his partner. "I had to turn off my mental domination of the neighborhood, and it took all of my remaining psychic energy, but I got in a brain blast that could knock even tall guy there off his feet. I'd say that's one kill apiece, partner."  
  
Nodding in agreement, the Fixer was returning Mentallo's thumb's up sign when he saw a shadow begin to grow around his partner. He turned just as Mentallo did, and realized at the same instant what the ominous shadow foretold.   
  
The Fixer couldn't stand to watch as he averted his eyes one moment before Tofu, now unconscious, fell to the ground. Much to the Hydra agents' consternation, the direction their large opponent chose to fall was where Mentallo stood. Unfortunately for Kyosuke, without his flying disc, he lacked the speed to get out of the way.   
  
A loud thump told the tale. Grimacing, the Fixer forced himself to look at the scene. Much to his relief, his partner and not been crushed as flat as a pancake. Instead, a last second lunge had allowed him to move both far and fast enough so that it was Tofu's hand that had struck him, rather than the entire body. Still, judging by the telepath's motionless form, the force from even a glancing hand was sufficient to knock him out.  
  
"This has been one lousy night," the Fixer lamented, wondering if he had enough time to jury-rig something to help carry his partner's body back to base.   
  
"And it's about to get *cough* worse for you, you... you... you bad person, you."  
  
The Fixer spun around and aimed his tracker gun in the direction of where the girl's voice had come from: directly behind him. However, there was no one there. A quick sensor sweep showed no targets in the area.   
  
"I'm *cough* right behind you."  
  
Again the Fixer spun, and still no one was there. It took him a moment to figure out the only place that his opponent could have been to avoid his wide range sensor sweep: right on the Techno Pack itself.  
  
He needed to stall for a moment as he brought the proper weapon system online. Its power had been cut from the damage delivered by either the kick or the collision with the tree. The system was powering up at one tenth its normal speed. "How did you escape the toxic cloud?"  
  
The voice sounded muffled as she said, "I held my breath. You shouldn't *cough* let people know what you're going to do by *cough* saying it out loud before you do it."  
  
"Point taken. Exterior Fry Daddy." Instantly the metal surface of his pack gave off a jolt of electricity. Its original purpose was to electrocute anyone stupid enough to grapple with him, but it could serve as a makeshift bug zapper if the situation called for it.   
  
"Now to collect my troublesome insect." The Fixer brought out a clear tube from his belt. He hoped she wasn't dead; odds were she would reveal more information as to what sort of creature she was through questioning rather than an autopsy. However, when he scanned the ground with his goggles, he could not detect her form.  
  
"Now where did she go?" he mumbled more to himself than expecting someone to answer.  
  
But answer someone did. More muffled than before, Kasumi said, "I'm right behind you."  
  
The Fixer spun back and forth, nearly tripping over his own feet as he twisted in a circle. She still wasn't on the ground, which meant she was still on the pack. "How did you survive being electrocuted? The entire exterior surface of my pack was rigged."  
  
"I'm not on the surface," the muffled voice replied. "I'm inside it."  
  
"Oh crap, the exhaust tubes-" was all the Fixer got out before a burst of energy, delivered from inside the far more vulnerable confines of his pack, ripped out of the back and up to the sky, shredding metal with an unholy screech.   
  
With the damage done to the pack, terminally melting down its core, a feedback erupted through the Fixer's helmet. It was his turn to be electrocuted by his own pack, and though the charge was less than a quarter of that had been intended for Kasumi, it was still sufficient to send the Fixer into unconsciousness for hours.  
  
Kasumi flew out of the ruins of the Fixer's much vaunted Techno Pack. She carefully examined his face. Convinced from his steady breathing and lack of movement that he was unconscious and would not be threatening her again, Kasumi flew to the primary object of her concern. "Dr. Tofu!" she called out, praying he would respond.  
  
Somewhere in the darkness of Tofu's mind, the voice tickled at the edge of his consciousness. He recognized that voice, and felt a familiar love haze cloud his thoughts. "Kasumi," he softly murmured and sat up.  
  
"Thank goodness you're all right, Doctor," she said in relief.  
  
Hearing her voice, but not actually seeing her, the doctor was once again able to maintain coherence in her presence. It took another moment for him to remember what had just happened. "Where are they? I know they tried hurting you Kasumi. I'll make them pay!"  
  
Kasumi felt her heart give a flutter at the doctor's show of protectiveness. Or maybe it was just her wings fluttering. It was difficult to say. "I took care of the man with the backpack with all those unpleasant weapons."  
  
"Then where's the other, oh." Tofu squeezed slightly and discovered what his hand was resting on. "Uh, I didn't accidentally crush him, did I?"  
  
Kasumi flew low and looked Mentallo over. "No. I don't see any bones sticking out, and he's breathing just fine. Nice deep breaths."  
  
A tired sigh escaped Tofu's lips. "For a moment there, I was afraid I let my temper get the better of me. I don't even remember attacking him."  
  
"That's because you didn't. You landed on him when you fell unconscious."  
  
"Oh." Tofu felt his manly pride at defeating an opponent suddenly emasculated.   
  
With the matter seemingly taken care of, Kasumi let out a deep breath that released all of her pent up exhaustion. Tonight had easily been the most exciting, and second most terrifying, experience in her nineteen years of life. Although oddly enough, now that her life was no longer in jeopardy, Kasumi not only felt a profound sense of relief, but one of exhilaration. For the first time in that she could remember, she had dealt with an extremely difficult and physically dangerous situation on her own. Well, Doctor Tofu had helped her, but it had been her own skills that had enabled her to survive the first round of the fight and defeat the bad guy with the pack in the second. She had seized control of the situation, had risked her life, and come out on top. She found the taste of success intoxicating. She had never done anything like that before. Perhaps it was nothing more than an adrenaline high, but even so, she found she wanted to experience the rush and satisfaction of being able to not only influence, but also control her life, again.   
  
And now that she thought about it, she was going to have to. "Oh dear, Doctor. I feel I have to apologize."  
  
"Apologize for what?"  
  
"For not paying closer attention to you and accidentally allowing you to wreck that size changing machine. Now we're going to be stuck like this. I hope you can still continue your practice. Perhaps you can become a veterinarian and work on elephants and giraffes. You have to admit, you'll be better at it than anyone else, as long as you make big instruments that you can handle."  
  
"Hmm. I wonder about that," Tofu said. The theory behind Pym Particles was that after being irradiated only once, one could control their growth by will power alone. Now the theory was about to be tested. Giving a silent prayer to every god there was, Tofu willed himself to become his original size.   
  
A moment later, he found himself tangled in a tarp. He struggled through it, eventually working his way to the surface. More aware of his undressed state than Kasumi had been, Tofu kept the tarp pinned under his armpits. "Just try thinking about regaining your original height, and it should work."  
  
Her heart racing with trepidation, Kasumi landed on the ground, closed her eyes, and did as she was bade. When she opened them again, the world had returned to its original dimensions. She was about to give a cheer of joy when she felt something was missing. Peering over her shoulder at her back, she saw that her wings had disappeared. Feeling a momentary surge of unexpected panic, a surge worse than the one where she thought she was trapped at her small height, Kasumi willed herself to shrink again. It worked as she returned to her 'wasp' form, and was delighted to discover the wings had returned as well. Once again she willed herself to her original height. "Oh, Dr. Tofu. It's wonderful. My wings only appear when I'm small, and I can make myself tiny and big as much as I want..."   
  
Kasumi trailed off as she saw that Tofu was lying on his back, face up to the sky. Blood was trickling from his nostrils in two tiny rivulets. For a moment, she feared it was a delayed reaction from an injury that had gone unnoticed, but then she heard him mumble, "So beautiful. Like a pale, newborn angel."   
  
Kasumi looked down at herself and suspected what had happened to the doctor. Her whole body turned a bright shade of red. She quickly shrunk back down so no one could see her naked. In the distance, she could hear the sound of sirens, and realized she was going to have to move fast before the authorities arrived. True, it was her civic duty to report what had happened, but she felt some unspoken need for secrecy concerning her role in the affair. It wouldn't do to have everyone worry about her and the changes she had undergone. Her father would undoubtedly break down and cry if he thought one of his daughters' lives had been in jeopardy, especially someone as helpless as Kasumi.   
  
Although that was not true anymore, was it? On the contrary, she could do more than take care of herself. Why, she could probably challenge Nabiki, who was a top-grade martial artist, and win. She had been instrumental in taking on two very dangerous super-villains and managed to win, with an assist from Dr. Tofu, who, like her, could also change his size. They had much in common now, more than ever before, even more than what he and Akane shared as doctor and assistant.   
  
Kasumi hoped she could persuade Tofu to refrain from telling anyone about her newfound abilities. Now that the full force of events had settled in, and she could change size at will, she knew without a doubt she was going to use these fantastic abilities again, and would need to keep it secret. It was definitely the sort of thing her father and sisters, would never understand. They were ordinary people with ordinary lives, just like Kasumi's had been not more than two hours ago. But in the span of that time, everything had changed. Now Kasumi Tendou was far more than she had been, and she found she liked it very, very much.  
  
Perhaps Dr. Tofu would want to use his abilities too, rather than hide them. To help others, of course. She was hardly going to use her powers for something as self-centered as fame or fortune. Just the thrill of having the abilities and using them was enough reward for her. Perhaps she could even become one of those super-heroes who seemed to be cropping up all over the country. Just the other week they had discovered two more costumed heroes. What where their names again? Oh yes, Captain Japan and his sidekick, Bucky. Already everyone was trying to guess their secret identities and when they would appear again. Kasumi wanted to be like them, fighting awful people with fantastic powers, just like she had tonight. It might be dangerous, and she could possibly be hurt, but someone had to do it. It might not have been the same sort of responsibility cooking meals for her family was, but it was an obligation nonetheless, one to society. With great powers came great responsibility. At least that was how she felt about the matter.  
  
There was also a self-centered reason mixed in with all of the selfless ones. She enjoyed the unmistakable thrill of winning a fight. It was a bit egotistical of her to want to engage in violent acts simply for the stimulation of triumphing over an adversary, but as long as they were bad people intent on harming others, such confrontations would be justified.   
  
Yes, that just felt right. She was going to do something exciting and important with her life and become a super hero. The name the two villains had given her, that of a 'Wasp' sounded most appropriate. She was only slightly bigger than one, had insect wings, and certainly possessed a sting. Yes, she liked the way it sounded. The Wasp it was.   
  
With her more flamboyant identity decided, all that was left was to figure out what sort of costume she should wear, and what size to make it. The size-changing would make things a bit on the difficult side. She was no exhibitionist, like that Bucky person, flashing her breasts on nationwide television and such. The clothing was going to be tricky, all right, but she had time. All the time in the world, or at least until the next super villain tried to take over the minds of the population of Nerima.   
  
And then an errant thought occurred to her which ruined her mood.  
  
"Oh no! The meat!"  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Letting out a tired sigh that held the weight of many decades, the Imperial Hydra turned off the portable spy unit she had set up to keep tabs on how Mentallo and the Fixer's operation went. Neither was aware of the cameras she had secreted in the mental amplifier anymore than they were of the fact that the Imperial Hydra was a woman, and an old one at that. But then, it was unlikely a terrorist organization would respond favorably to the idea of being run by a female. True, she could end all of their lives with the special detonator wires hidden in all of their uniforms (a definite advantage in ensuring the loyalty of one's minions, especially when one provided all of their clothing for them), but that would be a complete waste of time. Recruiting was a large expenditure, and the finances of Hydra weren't as mighty as they had been in the past thanks to the current recession. Running a terrorist organization wasn't as easy as the public thought. It took hard work and perspiration to get anything done, as well as a touch of ruthlessness. Well, more like a stranglehold of it, but that was the price one paid in order to call the shots.   
  
The most ironic thing about the whole matter was it never had been her idea to run things in the first place. She would have been perfectly content to be a married woman and raise her brood of children, not even wanting a job. She was old-fashioned that way. But then came the day when the youngest of her children had finally started college and she stumbled upon her husband's real source of income. A door-to-door mattress salesman her foot, he had actually been the leader of one of the world's most reviled terrorist organizations. She knew she should have suspected things were odd when he kept bringing in nearly six hundred million yen a year; no door-to-door mattress salesman in the world made that, even as smooth a talker as her husband could be when the situation demanded it.   
  
When she discovered the truth, she didn't have the heart to turn him in. His groveling and pleading hadn't hurt either. After all, he had been a responsible husband and parent. He had stayed faithful to her. He had provided well for her and the family. He even made certain to attend all the children's recitals and was always home for the holidays. How many salarymen could claim that? And it wasn't as though he had founded the organization, he just ran it. It was his father who had inherited the role from some crazy old Nazi called Von Smucker or something. He might have been related to the jelly baron. She wasn't certain.  
  
In a way, she had been proud of her husband for thinking big, and running one's own terrorist organization was certainly lucrative, even if the risks were high. But at least he had long term goals and had gone about trying to make them a reality, even if it was global domination. Few men had the courage to chase their dreams. So once she discovered the truth, she decided to help run things. She had to, really. It was a matter of family honor, she was a dutiful wife, her husband had not been in good health, and he always had difficulty in adjusting to the times. So she had helped, actually she had all but taken over, in modernizing Hydra for the current day and age. It got to the point where she was running both long term and day-to-day operations far more efficiently than her husband ever had. It seemed she had a knack for operating illegal enterprises. Hydra grew to ten times its original size and the successes the organization had were astronomical. Already their long range plan to slowly turn everyone into a state of submissiveness by placing trace chemicals in their coffee was showing results. The people that claimed those Starbuck's franchises were spreading like a cancer didn't know the half of it.  
  
But then her husband died, and she was left running the whole show. She had her technicians create a communications device that would project a holographic image, in her case it was that of her masked husband. It even imitated his voice. It was perfect in every way. Her subordinates had no idea they were taking their orders from a seventy-three year old woman who could be mistaken for a mummy if one didn't look too carefully. She was spry, but for most at her age simply breathing was considered being spry.  
  
And that was part of her problem. She was getting too old to run things. Though she was still in perfect health, the fact was she was at the age where her heart could give out at any moment. That meant the time had come to pass the reins of command on to someone else. Since running Hydra had been a family business, it would be best to give it to the next generation of her offspring. There were some difficulties. All but one of her children had married. While it was true her oldest was to the point of frustration with his marriage that he would probably welcome the opportunity to become a terrorist, his first act would probably be to kill his own family, and she was rather fond of the grandchildren. So that meant offering the position to her youngest first. It was not as though he was doing anything important, like getting married and providing her with grandchildren to dote upon. It was time the useless layabout did something important with his life, like try to take over a large portion of the world.   
  
But then the problem came up. One of the reasons she had wanted the device tested in Nerima was that she was going to be in the area anyway. As soon as they uncovered the amplifier she had ordered her technicians to develop telepathic scramblers making her immune to the effects of the mental amplifier, so that wasn't the problem. And she would be around firsthand in case anything went wrong or the two super nincompoops exceeded their orders and she was forced to liquidate them. However, she was delighted with the initial stages of the operation and the performance of her operatives. Those two had the potential to get ahead in the organization, if S.H.I.E.L.D. or some other annoying international defense agency didn't kill them first.   
  
The operation had been going fine right up to the point they had encountered that 'Wasp' girl. Then things had gone straight downhill from there. It was nice that the boys had shown initiative and tried to capture the strange girl for study, but once they encountered a giant man, they should have canceled the operation and ran for it. Still, they had tried their best and came relatively close to success despite being thrown a curve that no one could have anticipated. She would let them live, despite their failure and subsequent capture. She would have the most vicious operatives at her disposal, the lawyers, get them off on some technicality. Probably from lack of witnesses, since everyone was in a waking state of unconsciousness the entire time.   
  
But Mentallo and the Fixer were far from the most important thing on her mind. No, that honor belonged to another. The old woman closed the secret panel on her portable shrine and hefted it once more upon her back. What was of far more concern than even the loss of the prototype and the loss of two operatives was the identity of the giant man, and the questions surrounding him, one first and foremost on the Imperial Hydra's mind.  
  
How on Earth did her son, Tofu Ono, get involved in the super-hero business? And more importantly, what was she going to do about it?  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Special thanks to Gary Ee and William Morse for their detailed analysis of this.  
  
[Writer's notes] Finally done. Now you see that this series isn't dead (yet), it just went into hibernation for a while. It does that from time to time. But now at last the final primary members of our merry band of super-heroes have been introduced. Next chapter things are planned to really kick off as the gang gets all together for the first time, and there might even be some new/familiar faces showing up for the first time again as well.   
  
BTW I: Kysouke Kasuga, and company are from KOR. Hiroshi and the people he mentioned are from 'My Dear Marie'.   
  
Odd facts: The names from Kyosuke's list of choices are real psionic-oriented super villains (except 'Brain Guy) Ironically, Mentello at one point in his career did briefly go by the name of Thinktank, largely in part because he attached himself to one in order to have better weapons and defenses. It didn't work.  
  
BTW: The sad things is, Daredevil's early foes did tend to be 'unforgettables' like Leap Frog, Stilt Man, and the infamous original 'Hooters' of crime the Owl and his flunkies. And don't ask me about the 'Masked Matador' with his ability to use a red cape to make charging people miss him. ^_^  
  
Special thanks once again to William Morse and Gary Ee for looking this over.  
As well as  
Jed Hagan  
James Zema  
Brian Randall  
Michael Chasse  
tangent  
  
D.B. Sommer  
  



	8. Ten Rings to Rule Them All Part I

Prologue  
  
A seeming eternity ago, when he was about six, Ryouga's father had told him that during those times when it seemed the world made no sense regardless of how diligently one tried to sort things out, it was best to ask the heavens for answers. "From matters of the heart to the injustices of life, turn to the skies and direct your questions there, and the answers will come to you, and you'll be made to understand your place in things." Ryouga had been incredulous, but now that he found himself embroiled in such a situation and it seemed the only avenue that remained open to him. He had never done this before, never felt so confused that he needed to, but no matter how hard he thought, answers were not forthcoming. So now it fell to this last desperate act.   
  
Looking skyward with a hopeless, searching stare, he said, "I've got a question for you. It's silly, really. I kind of feel embarrassed asking, but I really don't have anywhere else to turn. I hope I don't seem stupid in asking what might be obvious to anyone else if they were in my situation, but I'd really like to know exactly how is it that I can be standing in the middle of an American desert one moment, and then a flash of light later, the next thing I know I'm waking up in the middle of China wearing nothing but a pair of torn purple pants? I've never owned purple pants in my entire life! Purple pants look stupid! SO WHY AM I IN THEM NOW?!"  
  
The cries startled Lin-Mei, the eight-year old girl who was helping lead Ryouga after discovering him in her grandfather's crops, up the trail. She looked fearfully over her shoulder towards him, an action that had been repeated earlier. ""  
  
The old man, Yun-Lo, said, "I know. He's obviously unbalanced, but powerful. You saw what he did to the wild boar that tried to attack him. That beast could have overpowered any ten men in the village, but he managed to knock it out in one blow."  
  
"And why am I carrying all of these sunflowers?! I don't even like sunflowers! The pollen makes me itchy!"   
  
"" Lin Mei shuddered at the display.  
  
"" There was a touch of hesitation in the old man's voice. While it was true Yun-Lo had no love of strangers --especially half-naked foreign ones with bad taste in clothing who had appeared in a crater caused by an explosion which had shaken the village last night-- he still wondered if even this belligerent youth deserved to meet what was probably going to be his end at the area's new sovereign lord. The stories Yun-Lo had heard of those that dared to defy the Master... well, if even one of them were true, he would be showing fealty with a smile on his face from now until the end of his days.   
  
It had not always been like this. Things were peaceful until three years ago when the new lord appeared out of nowhere and announced his takeover of the region. All attempts at resistance to his absolute rule proved futile in the face of the raw power he and his minions commanded. The consequences to resistance were severe, and ended very quickly. Still, in spite of this, life was not unbearably bad. Aside from using the villagers as slave labor, forcing them to build a huge fortress in the mountains nearby, and providing a small amount of their crops to feed him and his handful of close lackeys, the lord made little in the way of demands. He kept to himself, though there strange lights and sounds frequently emanated from the mountain where the newly built fortress stood. The bizarre displays would appear during both day and night, but Yun-Lo was too sensible to allow curiosity to get the better of him. The affairs of those more powerful than he were beyond his concerns. The credo of his life was to keep his head down, be obedient and all would be well, or at least as well as could be expected. He was no revolutionary, no hero. He was just a pitiful farmer his entire life, and he intended to die as one as well, but not for some time, if he had any say in the matter.   
  
The only reason he dared go to the Master's fortress now was that there was a standing order about reporting anything unusual directly to the lord. For whatever reason, he seemed fiercely territorial about his claims, and dealt with intruders harshly. The boy was certainly unusual, and Yun-Lo would be damned if he would risk his life for some overly loud stranger. If such disobedience was discovered, he shuddered to think of what would happen to him and his family. No, there was no doubt about what he would do. He would lead the boy to what was most likely his doom and not look back. Guilt was for those who could afford it, and the old man had been poor since his birth, though even if he possessed a thousand times the money he had now it would still not be enough to afford the Master's anger.  
  
"I know somehow this is all your fault, Ranma! Thanks to you, I'm going through hell once again!"  
  
Yes, Yun thought, he would be poor until the end of his days, which would hopefully be more than the few this boy had remaining.  
  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Avenging   
Chapter 8  
Ten Rings to Rule Them All  
Part 1  
  
  
Any and all C+C is appreciated. You can contact me at  
sommer@3rdm.net  
  
At Larry F's at:  
http://lwf58.tripod.com/fan_fiction/d_b_sommer/index.html  
  
Or R+C books at:  
http://dbsommer.rcbooks.org  
  
And also Angcobra is now storing all of my fics, at   
http://s5.sexshare.com/~angcobra/dbsommer.html  
  
Standard disclaimer:  
I don't own any of the any of the Marvel characters, or the folks from Ranma 1/2 or any of the other various anime sources I refer to here.  
  
BTW: The idea for the opening here was created in my mind long before the events of Sept. 11. Just in case someone thought I wrote that part as some sort of reaction to it, this is not the case.   
  
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Hasam tugged at the collar of his white shirt. The garment was far too small to fit his six-plus foot, three hundred pound well-muscled frame. It felt like a snake was constricting around his chest. He would have sworn his wife had shrunk his clothing in the wash, save that he didn't have a girlfriend, much less a spouse, to wash his clothing for him. The pus-green sweater/vest that went over the shirt did nothing to help either his breathing or his eyes, as it clashed miserably with the baggy plaid pants he wore. Actually it clashed with everything he had ever worn in his twenty-five years of life. The ensemble was rounded out with shoes so blindingly white that they were nearly mirrored surfaces. Idly, he wondered if lasers would bounce off.  
  
Head aching from staring at his clothes for too long, Hasam sought relief by looking to his right where his partner and best friend, Fekish, sat. Of average height, a slender build, and a year younger than his companion, Fekish was similarly attired in eye-burning wear. As an added bonus, he also wore a bright purple hat with a white cotton ball affixed to the top that swung violently around whenever he so much as shifted his neck. The assault on the senses was only made easier by the fact that there was less of Fekish to go around. Unlike Hasam, the clothing chosen for his friend seemed better suited for his size, though given Fekish's usual easygoing nature, his companion could have worn an iron maiden and still seemed obliviously happy.   
  
It was times like this Hasam would have considered color blindness a blessing. Choosing to spare his eyes from further torture, he turned his attention to the only other passenger in one of the backseats of the stretch-limousine. Col. Akbar sat across from the duo, trying patiently not to look at them.   
  
"Why are you making us wear these ridiculous outfits again?" Hasam said miserably to his superior.  
  
The Colonel forced his eyes upon his subordinates and laughed, "My dear Hasam, you are going incognito on this flight. The whole industrialized world is set against our peoples, firmly convinced we are nothing more than a bunch of terrorists."  
  
"But we are terrorists," Hasam pointed out.  
  
"Freedom fighters," both Fekish and the Colonel said as one.  
  
It took every ounce of willpower Hasam had not to roll his eyes in front of his superior. At least Fekish's reflexive regurgitation of political-religious jargon could be understood since the shorter man was probably the most impressionable human being on the face of the planet. He was fairly certain Fekish could be talked into stripping in front of a convention of nuns and singing "I'm a little teapot short and stout," with only five minutes of prodding. That was one of the reasons Hasam had been assigned to him: to keep him from doing anything stupid or giving away any secrets he knew about the movement.  
  
The Colonel's tone remained carefree and easygoing. "Be that as it may, the two of you are going to fly out of this country in your disguises." He handed booklets to each of the passengers. "Here are your passports."   
  
As Hasam looked his over, his jaw nearly dropped into his lap. "My name is supposed to be Sven Svenson, a professional golfer from Iceland?! Do they even have golf courses there?"  
  
"Several," Fekish answered cheerfully as he began absorbing the information contained within the passport.   
  
"Ingenious, isn't it? No one would suspect Icelandic golfers of being terrorists. I came up with the disguises myself." The Colonel preened over what he obviously considered an impressive achievement.   
  
Hasam grasped Fekish's cheek and pulled. "I think our skin's a touch on the dark side to try passing ourselves off as coming from an island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean that was settled by Europeans."  
  
The Colonel waved his hand dismissively. "Bah! It doesn't matter. The Japanese think all gaijin look alike." He carefully handed Fekish an awful-looking briefcase decorated in yellow and pink pastels. "This is the item you're going to take on the flight with you. Don't worry about passing through customs. Its contents are impervious to detection. However, no matter what, you must not open it. It must remain sealed."  
  
"It's a bomb, isn't it?" Hasam growled as Fekish accepted the briefcase without a word.  
  
The Colonel looked insulted. "Don't be ridiculous; it's no bomb. This is a very valuable item we obtained here in Japan. It's the reason to our being here in the first place. It's imperative that the case gets back to the homeland, which is why we've taken such drastic measures to ensure you can fly it home without fear of being detained."  
  
"Oh. When you put it that way, that makes things a little different." Hasam relaxed slightly.  
  
The Colonel added, "Although on the offhand chance your presence is somehow detected and it appears you will be arrested by the authorities, there's two concealed buttons located on the top of the case. Push them at the same time."  
  
Fekish held the case up by its handle. He spotted two nearly concealed studs next to each lock on the top. "You mean these?" He brushed his fingertips across the tops.  
  
"DON'T TOUCH THEM!" The Colonel dove for cover. In the enclosed confines of the limo, that meant lunging headfirst into the floor.   
  
"It is a bomb!" Hasam resisted the urge to hit the Colonel with the briefcase, mainly in fear of setting off the explosive rather than out of any respect he held for his superior.  
  
"Nonsense," the Colonel scoffed, recovering quickly. "As I said before, it is not a bomb. Although even if it was, you should be proud that I would bestow upon you the opportunity to do such a great deed that would usher you into Allah's arms."  
  
Tearing the briefcase from Fekish's grasp, Hasam began gesturing wildly about with it in his hand. "I'll tell you what, if blowing one's ass up is such a great opportunity to be ushered into Allah's arms, and everyone has such tremendous respect for all that you've done for our cause, why don't I give you the case and you can get on the plane with it, while I hang around this plane of existence for a while longer?" He thrust the case in the Colonel's direction.  
  
The man waved the overture back. "Alas, it is a tempting offer, but it is not my fate to do such for the cause. I am much too important to our organization in a number of ways and am quite irreplaceable."  
  
"No, you're not. I've seen what you do, and frankly, it's not that hard to sleep in most of the time, boss people around when you are awake, and spend money on good food and better women. I can do it quite easily." He thrust the case back in the Colonel's direction.  
  
He refused it again, this time with a pointed scowl. "This is not a negotiable point. It is imperative the two of you take this briefcase and go on the flight, as you have been ordered."  
  
"Fine," Hasam sighed. "Since it's so imperative that we get this case to the homeland, can you at least tell us what is inside?"  
  
The Colonel shook his head. "It is on a need to know basis, and you do not need to know. I can tell you it was not easy to acquire and cost us a tremendous sum of money, but it was worth every cent. In our hands, its contents can change the face of the world and bring victory to our righteous cause. That stupid, trusting infidel woman will pay for her greed and improper lifestyle eventually, when the time comes to turn our attention to this festering pit of infidels and their unbelieving ways. I will personally see to it the woman is taught her place in the proper scheme of things and is brought low. Hahahaha!"  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
"Roquat?"  
  
"Yes, Mistress?"  
  
"You alerted the authorities at the airport to be on the lookout for two foreign terrorists in their early twenties, one very large and one average height and a bit slender, dressed in suspicious clothing and carrying a briefcase with yellow and pink pastels, correct?"  
  
"Several minutes ago."  
  
"Excellent."  
  
"Mistress, why, might I ask, are you doing this? I mean, you did sell them the product in the first place. And if you want it back, why don't we simply retrieve it from them ourselves instead of bringing the authorities in on it?"   
  
"Several reasons. First, I want it back because I don't trust those buffoons to not use it against our interests in some way, which was part of the sales agreement. I'm just not waiting to give them a chance to stab us in the back first. Second, we can't allow anyone to know of our involvement in the retrieval. It would be bad for business if potential buyers became aware of our stealing our own product from the people we sold it to. That makes direct involvement out of the question. Third, there is no need to expend our resources in retrieving the object when the authorities will do it for nothing. Finally, it's much easier to get it from the police than it would be from our clients."  
  
"Remarkable. We will come out of this situation with a tremendous profit and at virtually no risk. I stand in awe of your business savvy, Mistress."  
  
"As well you should. As well you should."  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
"Such a stupid woman, like all of her gender." The Colonel continued to grin at his perceived intelligence and wisdom.  
  
That made Hasam worry all the more, because the Colonel was neither intelligent nor wise, just lucky, and his luck rarely extended to those around him.   
  
This was a terrible situation; Hasam could feel it in his bones. He was being made into a sacrificial lamb, and supposedly their religion was against that sort of thing. But sensing the Colonel would not be swayed from his plan, Hasam remained silent and waited for an opportunity to think about the situation the first chance he could once he was away from his superior.  
  
All too quickly they arrived at Tokyo Airport, and Hasam was not any closer to a solution than before.  
  
"We are here." The Colonel clasped both men's hands and thumped them both on the shoulder. "May Allah travel with you."  
  
"I'd just as soon he distracted the authorities rather than travel with us," Hasam said ominously as he exited the vehicle. Fekish was close behind him, still smiling vacuously.   
  
"So long, my friends." The Colonel waved once at the duo, then shut the door. As it closed, Hasam could hear his superior hiss, "Get us the hell out of here!" to the driver. The car sped off a moment later, tires squealing on the pavement.  
  
"Isn't odd how he only refers to us as his friends when he needs us to do something dangerous?" Hasam said idly. Fekish merely shrugged.  
  
Paranoia ate away at Hasam's senses like a sea full of sharks devouring a bloodied fish in their midst as he and Feckish entered the airport. He was certain every eye in the terminal was focused on them, ready to pounce upon him long before they ever made it to the plane. And once that happened, even Hasam didn't want to know what those damn buttons did. The Colonel had to be lying. It had to be a bomb.   
  
Unable to take the pressure, the big man spun on his compatriot. "Fekish?"  
  
Fekish waved his finger. "Ah, ah, ah. We're undercover."   
  
Hasam's eyebrow twitched. "Excuse me, Bjork."  
  
"That's better, Sven. Now, do you think the green in Reykjavik is in need of repair? I want to improve my golf game the next time we go on tour, and as they say, it's only on a good green that you can properly hone your game. That Woody Tiger fellow is awful good."  
  
"Knock it off!" Hasam hissed. "You're good with locks and explosives. I want you to open up that briefcase and find out what's inside."  
  
"But the Colonel told us not to." Fekish suddenly became uneasy. He shifted his weight between one foot and to the other, swaying back and forth almost as rhythmically as a metronome.   
  
"Yes, but the Colonel isn't here to give orders now and the situation has changed."  
  
"It has?"  
  
"Yes. I'm in charge."  
  
"Oh, well, I guess that makes sense." He stopped moving back and forth.  
  
"Of course it does, and you know I've always looked out for you. Now do me a favor. Go into the nearest restroom. Go into one of the stalls and close the door behind you. Then open up that damned case without setting off any booby-traps and tell me what's inside."  
  
"Okay." Fekish obeyed the orders and walked off.  
  
Hasam watched his partner enter the restroom. The feeling of being watched grew exponentially. Had he held less loyalty to his friends, and liked Fekish less than he did, he probably would have left the airport outright. The Colonel was lying. Oh, he might have been technically telling the truth, but he was putting their lives on the line while he sat back and watched events unfold. Hasam hated that. He preferred the idea that in his god's eyes, all men were equal, rather than those that had money were important, and those that had nothing were useful as cannon fodder. He was no different from the Colonel, at least not in the ways that mattered. There was no reason their leader could not have been here instead of himself. It was times like this he seriously questioned his faith, or at least those religious leaders that supposedly knew what it meant to be faithful.  
  
Tension continuing to build, Hasam paced back and forth frantically, drawing stares from passers by. He tried to stop calling attention to himself, but even when he scratched his nose, he felt eyes boring in on him. He began to sweat uncontrollably, despite the cool air of the terminal. An odd compulsion to stand on top of a trashcan and shout out to everyone to quit staring at him grew ever more powerful. His breaking point was fast approaching.  
  
He was mopping the sweat from his brow for the third time when Fekish reappeared, smiling happily and carrying the case as though it contained nothing more than clothing. That eased Hasam a great deal. There was no way Fekish would be so casual if he were carrying a bomb. Still, he had to make sure.  
  
"So, Bjork, what's in our golf bag?"  
  
"We don't have a golf bag."  
  
"I meant was there a bomb in there?" Hasam hissed.  
  
"That's not what it sounded like."  
  
"Think of it as code."  
  
"Like Pig Latin?"  
  
"If it'll make you feel better, fine."  
  
"Okay. No ombay, on the friebcasay."  
  
"Stop that right now. No more code. Just speak quietly." Hasam swatted Fekish over the head with his hat.  
  
Fekish leaned closer. Hasam bent down to hear more clearly. Softly, the smaller man said, "There's no bomb in the case."  
  
The air left Hasam's lungs in a rush so loud that the gasp drew several people's stares, but he didn't care. He hadn't been sold out after all. He wasn't going to be blown up. He should have trusted the Colonel. The next time he saw his superior, he would apologize profusely for his rude behavior. "So what is the item we're smuggling back home?"  
  
Fekish looked up to the ceiling as the list formed in his mind. "Well, there were lots of things. Let me think. Inside there were several shirts, sweaters, pants, socks, edible underwear, toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, K-Y Jelly, unused condoms, a tube of talcum powder, a pair of suspenders."  
  
Hasam began to tune out as his partner's voice continued its listing of the common items. He wondered if it was drugs they were smuggling, perhaps in the talcum powder. It seemed odd, but who knew how they were raising money anymore?  
  
Fekish continued. "A bag of golf tees, toothpicks, bio-weapon kept in a metal cylinder with status readout on the side, lint brush, argyle soACK!"  
  
Hasam twisted the shorter man's collar so hard with his meaty fist that he threatened to crush Fekish's windpipe. "What was that about a bio-weapon?"  
  
"It's located in the top portion of the case," Fekish gasped out. "Right next to some sort of device that gives out a false image to x-ray machines."  
  
"How do you know it's a bio-weapon?"  
  
"Oh, that's easy. I dated a biochemist while we were here. She'd get a little drink in her and then would go on and on about the different types of bio-weapons her company had her make. I paid attention to what she said because women like it when you take their jobs seriously, respect their opinions, and listen to what they have to say. I read that in 'Cosmo'."  
  
Hasam cut him off. "And what happens if we push both those buttons on the top?"  
  
"It'll release the gas from its container, and depending on the toxicity levels, it could conceivably kill everyone in the airport."  
  
Hasam tuned everything else out. So, they had been betrayed, set up to die by their self-proclaimed 'superiors.' Well, he'd show them how superior they were when he and 'Bjork' left their little package behind. "Leave the case. We're out of here."  
  
"But, what about the mission? If we abandon it, we'll be punished."  
  
"If we get on that plane, we'll be dead. I'd say all other punishments fall somewhat short of that." Hasam considered the situation. "We can't just leave the case in the middle of the airport. Someone will think it's a bomb and they might grab us before we get out of here. And there's no way I'm risking taking it with me. We're ditching it, now." Hasam looked around, finally spotting a solution to their problem. "See those two guys over there? The ones standing next to the gate and looking around like they're trying to spot someone?"  
  
Fekish looked to where his partner was pointing. There were two men. One was huge, even larger and appeared more powerful than the sizable Hasam. The other was about Fekish's height and had a similar build. Both were wearing trenchcoats and hats low to their faces. "Those two suspicious individuals that are trying hard to not look suspicious? Yes."  
  
"They're foreigners that just arrived here. I watched them disembark the plane while you were in the restroom. Go over there and play 'dumb tourist,' and ask them in broken Japanese to watch the case while you go to the restroom. Then head out the front entrance. I'll meet you there."  
  
Hasam left, making Fekish swallow his doubts and force himself to obey the orders. Casually, he went up to the pair and bowed before them. "Excuse, please. I am most humble golfer from Iceland. Must use restroom. Please watch case so no one steal."  
  
"Is your name Bjork?" the smaller man asked.  
  
Fekish froze. How did the man know? Was it a trap? What could he do? How should he respond? Important decisions were best left in the hands of superiors, who tended to be smarter than him. Racking his mind, he came up with the only wildly elaborate and nearly insane plan that he felt might get him out of this dire predicament.   
  
With a sly smile on his face, he said, "Yes." He prayed answering the question would work, since he was all out of other ideas.  
  
The smaller man slapped his companion on the back. "See? I told you so. Didn't I say he looks like a Bjork the instant he headed toward us?"  
  
"Yes, you did," the big man sighed in a tired voice.  
  
Smirking, the smaller man told Fekish, "Yeah, go on. We'll watch your case."  
  
Fekish bowed once, and ran as fast as he could towards the exit of the airport.   
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
The two men looked at the case in front of them. "It hurts just to look at it, doesn't it?" the big one asked.  
  
"I think it has a great color-scheme," the shorter one replied.   
  
"You would."  
  
"What's that supposed to mean?"  
  
"That you have a terrible fashion sense."  
  
"Feh! You're just jealous because your outfit isn't as flashy as mine."  
  
"Oh, really? Why don't we take off our trenchcoats and ask someone?"  
  
"We can't do that. We're supposed to be," the smaller man whispered, looking around. "Undercover. People will know we're super villains if we show off our costumes."  
  
"So if the costumes will give us away, why didn't we just come in our normal clothes?"  
  
"Then how would the people we're supposed to meet recognize us if we didn't wear our costumes?"  
  
"We could have described ourselves to them."  
  
"Oh, come on. What would we tell them? Be on the lookout for a pair of Chinese men. One of them is somewhat slender, fast, and likes wearing wolf skins while the other is seven feet tall, has four hundred pounds of solid muscle, and likes tiger skins? Lots of guys look like that. They'd probably walk off with the wrong people."  
  
"Okay, but let me ask you this. You're saying that they're supposed to recognize us by our costumes, right?"  
  
"Yep."  
  
"How are they going to recognize us if we're wearing trenchcoats over our outfits?"  
  
"Oh, that's easy. We'll... Umm, that is we can just... Actually we can... Ohh. Look at those. Are those titties?"  
  
"Where? Where?!" It took the larger man a moment to spot the woman heading in their direction. She did indeed have an impressive pair of breasts, her open tan vest and tight, white tee-shirt only enhancing the fact. They barely noticed that aside from having a good body, she was also attractive, with a long mane of black hair that traveled halfway down her back, bound only slightly by a red bandanna on top.   
  
"Do you think she's one of the people the boss hired?" the thin one asked.  
  
"Oh, that would be great. Maybe she would show us her titties if we asked nicely."  
  
"I bet she would. You know what they say: nothing ventured, nothing lost. Let's go ask." The shorter man picked up the briefcase and joined his partner in heading towards the attractive woman.  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Located no more than twenty feet away, hidden behind a column and trying to blend into the crowds, Agent Kaori Otani of the undercover unit of Airport Security looked over the description of the terrorists she and her men had been given. Aloud, she said, "Two foreign terrorists, both men in their early twenties. One very large and the other average height and somewhat slender, dressed in suspicious clothing and carrying a briefcase with yellow and pink pastels on it." She turned to her two partners. "Sounds like a match. What do you think?"  
  
"I think that hot looking chick has got to be at least a..." Ryo Saeba held out his hands in the woman with the tan vest's general direction, and cupped them, squeezing slightly as if testing the ripeness of a pair of invisible tomatoes. "38-C," Ryo concluded.  
  
Kyo Saeba looked between the hands and the breasts in the distance. "Hmm. Sorry, Kaori. I'm afraid I have to go with Ryo. Look's like he's got the better match to me."   
  
She grabbed one ear on each of them, then brought the ears together rather violently. Each man's respective head followed the path their ears had taken. Their heads produced a similar thud. "Ow!" both said as one, enhancing the brothers' identical nature.   
  
"Would you two idiots pay attention?!"  
  
Ryo said, "Is this another one of your jealous rants because we found yet another woman that's more attractive and feminine than you?"  
  
Kyo nodded in agreement. "Yeah. You have to get over this obsession you have with us. I hate to tell you this --not that it will stop me from doing so-- but men just don't find you attractive, except the gay ones that mistake you for a guy."  
  
Ryo pointed out, "And she does get an extraordinary amount of lesbians hitting on her. Some of them quite good-looking."  
  
"It's that butch, tomboyish way she dresses. I hear women like that go for that look."  
  
"Think we should try that? I mean dressing like butch women."  
  
"Couldn't hurt."  
  
It took everything Kaori had not to pull out her gun and shoot both of the egocentric, chauvinistic, deluded buffoons. "Knock it off! Pretend for just one second you got your job based on actual abilities instead of the fact your uncle is in charge of the force. We are in the middle of an assignment. We need to get that obnoxiously decorated briefcase, with the highly toxic substance in it, away from those two stupid-looking guys in the trenchcoats without setting things off."  
  
"You don't want us to set the guys off?" Kyo asked.  
  
"No! The briefcase. We don't want them to set the briefcase off."  
  
"Oh, is that all?" Ryo said. He and Kyo nodded to one another, removed themselves from the cover of the column and headed towards the two men without another word.  
  
Kaori paled. The two idiots were dead, which wouldn't have been so bad, save for the fact they were going to take her and everyone else in the airport with them. She briefly considered gunning the pair down before they drew too close to the terrorists, but couldn't bring herself to pull the trigger. It was too quick a death for them. All she could do was close her eyes and say a prayer.  
  
"I swear by all that is holy I will go with you two idiots to Hell and torment you there even as you tormented me in this life."  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
The two trenchcoated men were about to approach the woman when they found two identical twins, about their age, stepping in front of them and preventing them from walking up to the woman and asking her about a quick peek of her breasts.  
  
Kyo said, "Would you mind giving me the briefcase?"  
  
"Our partner would appreciate it greatly," Ryo continued. "She's going to bitch a lot if we don't get it for her. Actually, she'll bitch a lot anyway, but she won't turn quite as red if we have the briefcase than if we don't."  
  
The pair looked at one another, then shrugged. The shorter man said, "I know what it's like to get yelled at. Our boss does it to us all the time. Do the veins on her forehead pop out?  
  
"Oh, all the time," Kyo assured him.  
  
Ryo said, "We tried playing tic-tac-toe with them once, but she got angry with that, too."  
  
The smaller man elbowed his companion in the ribs. "Hey, we ought to try that with the boss."  
  
"It would be pretty funny," the larger man agreed.   
  
"Here." Feeling sympathetic to the twins' plight, the shorter man handed Ryo the briefcase.  
  
Ryo turned back to where Kaori still remained behind the pillar, nearly chewing on the concrete in anxiety. "We have it! And I still don't see why you were whining so much about getting it! All you needed to do was ask politely!"  
  
"Get out of the line of fire!" she shouted, rounding the column and pointing the gun at the two suspicious men. She was joined by the other twenty members of her unit, all of whom followed Kaori's lead and burst from their concealment, aiming their guns at the strangers. "You two put your hands behind your heads and drop to your knees, right now!"  
  
The pair looked the situation over. The larger one said, "I think our cover's blown."  
  
"I'd be inclined to agree."  
  
"Our instructions were clear if that happened. This is the moment you've been waiting for."  
  
"You got that right. Let's do it!"  
  
Both men threw off their trenchcoats just as the circle of undercover personnel closed in on them. All of the civilians who found themselves between the two groups ran for cover in a mass panic. Only one left coolly, the woman who had been the focus of both the foreigners and the twins' attention.   
  
As their trenchcoats hit the ground, both men pulled their masks on and stood revealed before the law enforcement personnel in all their brightly dressed glory. The larger man wore a full-bodied costume. It was plain brown around the hands and lower arms, along his boots and lower legs, and across his pelvis, shoulders, upper chest and mask. A dark orange covered the few remaining areas of his costume. Only the area around his eyes and mouth was cut out, allowing him to see and breathe easier.  
  
The smaller man wore a costume that was dull yellow, only broken up by blue along his hands and upper arms, and on his boots. A large blue 'W' was in the center of his chest. The only other odd feature was a tiny set of white wings on his mask, located around the ears.   
  
The law enforcement personnel drew back. Kaori kept her gun leveled at the pair as she said, "Tell me these guys aren't super powered beings. We seriously can't deal with SPBs."   
  
In response to her question that was more of a plea, the larger man ripped up a huge section of walkway that several of the police were standing on, knocking them off their feet and sending them into various states of unconsciousness as they fell in among the debris.   
  
"Shit!" Kaori only hoped the large man was not invulnerable as well as strong. She lined her gun sights up with the head of the man, and aimed at the mouth. Maybe she would get lucky and he'd have it open when she fired. Insides weren't anywhere near as invulnerable as outsides on these guys, or so she had heard.   
  
Just as her finger squeezed the trigger, there was a yellow blur and she suddenly found herself without a pistol. It took a moment for the pain of having her finger nearly ripped off to set in, and she clenched her teeth in agony. Other men weren't as stoic as they shouted out, holding their hands in pain. Kaori was one of the few to realize what had happened to their firearms.   
  
The yellow garbed man dropped the last of them in a pile at his feet. "It's not nice to point your guns at the future rulers of the planet."  
  
The larger one said, "You tell them, Mint."  
  
Mint turned on his comrade. "No! When we're in costume, we use our super-villain names. I'm the Whizzer."  
  
The big man appeared embarrassed. "Aw, come on. I don't want to be called by my name. I like Lime perfectly fine. It's been my name my entire life."  
  
"No way! You have to. It's all part of being a decent super villain. You have to have a cool name and people call you it. That's why I picked yours for you. It'll strike fear into your adversaries."  
  
"I don't think 'Power Man' is going to strike fear into anybody."  
  
"But it's appropriate. You've got power, and you're a man. So that makes you Power Man."  
  
"Well, I guess you're right."  
  
Kyo recovered enough to say, "Okay, so his super ability is that he's big and strong, so that makes him Power Man. That means you, with your name being the Whizzer and that color of costume you're wearing, must be your super ability is to..." He trailed off  
  
Ryo picked up the line of thought. "Ewwww! That's completely disgusting."  
  
Whizzer looked at them, confused. "What is?"  
  
Kyo gave him an 'are you that stupid?' look. It was one that only children really mastered, most adults forgetting how to do it as they got older. "It's obvious. With your name, and the color of your costume, you can only have one super power..."  
  
"...That of super peeing," Ryo finished.  
  
Whizzer recoiled at that. He pointed accusingly across the terminal to where Ryo stood. "That is not my super human ability. I'm super--"  
  
Ryo saw him disappear.  
  
"--Fast." Whizzer finished as he stood next to Ryo, the officer's wallet in hand.   
  
Ryo grabbed the offered limb that held his wallet, then pulled out a set of cuffs. "All right. Being a terrorist is one thing, but there's nothing lower than a pickpocket." Ryo slapped the cuff on the appendage he was holding, only to discover...  
  
"Hey, I cuffed myself."  
  
"Told you I was fast." Whizzer side-stepped Kyo as the officer tried to hit him with a stun baton, allowed the man to trip over his outstretched foot, and caused Kyo to hit his twin with the baton.   
  
Kyo looked at his brother's stunned form. "Curiously, I don't feel the slightest bit of remorse at that." Not one to let a decent opportunity pass by, Kyo kicked his brother once again in the side, intent on blaming the super-villain later.  
  
"Dog pile on the big guy!" Kaori shouted to the remaining personnel as she retrieved the briefcase and seek cover as the men obeyed her orders and threw themselves at Power Man. As commander of the operation, it was her duty to call in reinforcements, such as every military and law enforcement person in a fifty kilometer radius to come to their aid. She only prayed it would be enough to stop these two monsters before the casualties became too high. This screwed up, loser situation was exactly why she loathed super powered beings. And every time she encountered another one, her anger grew. She didn't care if the media had dubbed some of them heroes. They were all a threat. Something had to be done about them before it was too late.  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
High above, perched on the slanted rooftop of a tall building overlooking several blocks, Hawkeye stared down at the city streets, perturbed. She had been looking for some sign of criminal activity, but all she managed to catch was a couple of purse snatchers and the start of a cold. They had been hardly worth the effort of the glue arrow used on them, and she had no anti-histamines to stop her sniffling. It was looking like she would have to call it a day. She would have preferred operating at night, but there was the restaurant to run and school to eventually enroll in, so this was the only time Ukyou had available to hunt down criminals for the rest of the week.  
  
The stuffiness in her head warned her it was time to give up and call it a day when she spotted a quick movement below. Two female police officers bolted out of a restaurant and into their car. On a whim, Hawkeye shot a cable arrow into the ground next to the rear driver's door and slid down the length of cable even as the car started up.  
  
Hawkeye knocked on the window. "Excuse me." She made out the name on the driver's badge. "Kobayakawa-san, I'm one of the heroes that's new to this town, name's Hawkeye. You need any assistance?"  
  
The pair looked the archer over cautiously. Kobayakawa was the first to speak. "I remember you. Aoi said you helped him nail some would-be rapists last week."  
  
"Saturday night," Hawkeye confirmed.   
  
"Right. Well, as nice as the request is, I'm afraid we can't allow unauthorized personnel to ride in our vehicle without--" Kobayakawa found her speech interrupted by her partner, Tsujimoto, tapping on her shoulder.  
  
"Let him in," Tsujimoto whispered in Kobayakawa's ear. "Since we're dealing with superpowered bad guys, we can use the help. We're authorized to let people ride with us in emergency situations. Besides, he's wearing tights and has a seriously hot ass. This might be our only chance to hit on a major hunk."  
  
"I'm not that superficial," Kobayakawa said.  
  
Tsujimoto gave her a warning stare. "How long have we been partners?"  
  
Kobayakawa considered that and sighed. "Fine, I am. But I'm more subtle about it than you."   
  
"Agreed."  
  
To Hawkeye, Kobayakawa announced, "Hop in the back."  
  
Hawkeye could feel herself blushing as she accepted the ride. She had caught the 'hot ass' comment. A pity it had to come from a female. It was times like these Ukyou hated impersonating a guy to help keep her identity secret. At this rate, she would never get lucky enough to find a boyfriend. It was too bad, too, since she had met a number of good-looking male officers during the ensuing weeks of her new second career. However, she couldn't hit on them for fear of them freaking out, and she certainly didn't trust any of them enough to confide her secret identity. With the way her life was going, she feared ever having a chance at finding a decent boyfriend.  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
The hero known as Daredevil finished tying up the latest of his so-called 'Rogue's Gallery': The self-proclaimed, 'Master of Disguises,' a name so unwieldy that even the villain in question had taken to calling himself just MoD. Daredevil made certain to use the coarsest set of chains that were concealed in his voluminous crimson-colored robes.   
  
"Curse you, Dirtdevil!" MoD snarled. "How did you know it was me under this nun-disguise? I thought it was foolproof!"  
  
Daredevil pulled with far more force than was required on the chains. "First, my name is Daredevil. Second, you made the mistake of using aftershave, as well as the allowing the smell of gunpowder cling to your habit. There isn't a nun around that would use Brute and shoot firearms."  
  
"Obviously you never attended a Catholic school," the man muttered.   
  
While MoD was still lamenting his fate, Daredevil's acute hearing picked out the sound of a police car heading at top speed in his direction from two blocks away. Quickly, the masked man threw one end of the chain over a nearby lamppost and hoisted the criminal up into the air.   
  
"Hey! I'm chaffing here! I'll sue you for physical abuse and excessive force!" MoD roared.   
  
"I can recommend a good lawyer for you," Daredevil muttered as he wrapped a different chain around a lamppost and swung through the air. His timing was perfect as on the downside arc of his swing the police cruiser turned the corner and started to whip by. Daredevil landed deftly on the moving vehicle's roof, then lay flat and grabbed onto the sides without allowing the driver to be aware of his presence.   
  
As Mousse traveled overhead, he was barely able to hear the officer's radio over the roaring of the engine. "Confirmation on two super villains at the airport. One is really strong and called Powerful Guy. The other has something to do with urination, evidently. Be advised and grab a poncho."  
  
Daredevil sighed from his perch on the roof. It just figured; yet another loser super-villain to deal with, and a perverted one no less. Didn't they have any standards? Daredevil swore he would be going after the strong one, no matter how tough he was. Anything was better than fighting another putz.   
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
"Where do you think you're going, Boy?" Genma shouted to his son's back as the pair continued up the road. It had taken Genma nearly an hour to track his son down, given the tremendous lead the youth had built up since he had departed the Tendou residence earlier in the morning. It would have been no cause for concern, except the boy had taken all of his belongings with him.  
  
Ranma continued walking forward while answering, keeping his back to his father. "I told you, Pop. I'm buying a plane ticket to China, and finding a cure." He shouldered his pack, with the disguised shield strapped to it, for emphasis.   
  
"Foolish boy, you can't possibly afford air fare to China."  
  
"I can if I sell this useless hunk of metal strapped to my back." Ranma patted the paper-wrapped shield.   
  
"But you need that to become a great and powerful super hero."   
  
Ranma stopped and gave his father a surprisingly soft look. "You're absolutely right, Pop. I need it to become a great and powerful super-hero."  
  
"Then you've seen reason and are coming back home?"  
  
"I've seen reason and am not becoming a super-hero." With the matter decided, Ranma doubled his pace. It wasn't that far to the airport, just another five miles or so.  
  
Something uneasy shifted in the pit of Genma's stomach. For some reason, the boy sounded determined this time. Really determined. "But your mother-"  
  
"Can go join S.H.I.E.L.D if she wants to help bust super villains and wear a flashy skintight costume. I'll keep practicing martial arts, fine! I like that. But this being a heroic paragon of the country crap is over! I am a normal guy, except for that stupid curse thing that you gave me. I am not a super-hero, nor a super-hero sidekick, with a cowardly panda as a mascot!"  
  
"I'm a cute animal sidekick, not a mascot," Genma insisted.  
  
"It's over, Pop. Deal with it.'  
  
"But, Son-"  
  
Ranma spun in anger upon his father. "Damn it, Old Man, you don't get it! I'm tired of every time there's a little trouble you throw me into that ridiculous costume and tell me to get my head taken off by some lunatic who can freeze me solid with his breath or secretes acid through his pores! I am not a human target! I'm just a kid that hasn't even been able to make more than a handful of friends in his entire life because I have to run around and train thanks to this stupid idea Mom had! I'm tired of you guys trying to make me into something I'm not. I'm sorry I drank that super soldier crap that I don't even remember drinking. I wish I had never seen it in the first place, then I'd be normal and not have to put up with this dumb stuff. I don't care if I've done some good here and there. It's not like I even need the costume for any of it. I just want to be left alone."  
  
A police car rolled past, sirens blaring, in the direction of the airport.  
  
Genma was about to make some remark about how if Ranma hadn't drank the formula he'd have probably grown up a skinny wimp when he sensed the seriousness in his son's ultimatum. It was not totally unexpected. Once Ranma had gotten older and realized there was a world outside of training to be a super hero, he had been resistant to fulfilling the pledge. Usually he'd agree with the plan once Genma talked some sense into him, but other times he would dig his feet in and become almost intractable, causing Genma to waste hours explaining how things had to be. But this time it was worse, undoubtedly due to the curse, being engaged to one of the Tendou girls (which one was still up in the air), and living up to the high expectations of him now that they were becoming a reality. But in the end, it didn't matter. The boy had to toe the line. It was up to Genma to deal with the matter before it got out of hand.   
  
The older man adjusted his glasses, one of the signs that he was going to deal with a matter in complete seriousness. "The world needs you, Ranma. It needs heroes now more than ever. You have the potential to be one of the greatest, not just because the super soldier serum runs through your veins or because you have an indestructible shield, but because you have the will to keep on going where others would falter. Once you're determined to do something, you keep at it until the job's done. That you have the abilities you do makes it all the easier for you to accomplish your tasks. You fought that Hulk even though he was far more powerful than you. You defeated Ulos, even though he could bench press a Toyota, and you won because you persevered. That's what I mean."  
  
Another car roared past, momentarily interrupting the speech. Genma waited until it trailed off into the distance to speak again.  
  
"Strange days are upon us. I've been feeling it building up for the last few years, and I think the dam broke recently. You have heroes and villains popping up all over the place. It's true there were a handful in the early days of my childhood, even in my grandparent's day there were a few. But now, now it's like it's all hit at once. You're a basically good person, maybe even better than me, I'll admit. You'll be one of the best, someone that can be trusted above so many others. You should be the one people look up to, largely in part because you don't want the job. It's harder to abuse power you don't want to wield, and power you'll have. People will believe in you and follow you. They'll trust their lives to you, if you let them. But you have to let them, boy, otherwise there's no telling who they'll follow. All I know is, it would be better if it were you instead of someone else.   
  
"It's not easy. Responsibilities never are. But you're more than capable of managing it, once you set your mind to it. You just have to believe in yourself." Genma adjusted his glasses again. It was all he had to say. There probably could have been more, but it would have just been repeating the same thing in a different way. Best to leave it as was and wait for his son's reaction.  
  
Two more police cars roared past, sirens screaming that something dreadful was occurring. The pair watched the vehicles travel down the road until they were out of sight.  
  
Genma looked at Ranma expectedly. It was a hard look, one Ranma had rarely seen on his father. Under different circumstances, with different issues at stake, he would most likely have relaxed his defenses and listened wholeheartedly to what the older man was trying to tell him. But not this time. Something told Ranma this was where an important decision had to be made. Either he would set out on the course his parents had dictated to him since as far back as he could remember, or set out on one of his own choosing. It was perhaps the most important decision of his young life, and couldn't be decided to casually. And then it happened in the blink of an eye. A resolve he had never known settled upon him. He knew what was right for him, and he wouldn't back down, no matter what.  
  
Ranma looked at his father, gave a sad shake of the head, and sighed. "Fine, I'll follow those police cars and help them out if they need it."  
  
Genma beamed at the declaration. "I knew you had it in you. I've never been so proud of you as this moment, Son, and I mean that. Choosing to become a super-hero is-" Genma abruptly stopped as Ranma handed him the wrapped up shield.  
  
Before the older man could say another word, Ranma informed him in a calm and controlled voice, "I'm going to help them out, but it's going to be as Ranma Saotome, not Captain Japan or Bucky. I'm never using that shield again. Find yourself someone else to play superhero."   
  
Without another word Ranma ran at top speed in the direction that the police cars had taken, not even giving Genma a backward glance. In his mind, it was over.  
  
Genma was left holding the shield, uncertain of what to say. More slowly he followed, the feeling of a lifelong dream shattering into a thousand pieces echoing with every step taken.  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Officers Kobayakawa and Tsujimoto pulled up in front of the airport, joining a handful of other police vehicles that had also arrived there.   
  
"So where do you think the super-villains are?" Kobayakawa asked as she tried to find a decent place to park.  
  
A one meter ball of twisted plastic and metal, the remnants of a sushi stand, came hurtling through one of the walls of the airport and landed squarely on the hood of their car, caving in the entire front portion of the vehicle and forcing it to an instant standstill.  
  
"I'll be getting out here." Hawkeye darted out of the backseat to leave the two officers cringing in anguish as they stared helplessly out their shattered front window and at the remains of what had been, five seconds ago, their mode of transportation.  
  
"That's the third one this month!" Tsujimoto wailed. "The chief's going to bust us to a street beat for sure."  
  
"We barely knew ye," Kobayakawa said philosophically as she patted the car's cracked dashboard, while the press began to converge on the area, happy to start photographing the destruction and ensuing mayhem in the name of greater ratings.  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
"Are we set up yet?!" News reporter Akemi Shutaro tapped her foot impatiently as she waited for her idiot cameramen to finish their job and get her on the air. She had to hurry, or else she wouldn't scoop that sleazy tramp, Arika Miamata and Channel 4, who were no doubt already on their way in an effort to cover this breaking story. Akemi had to beat them, just like she had during the Hulk's reign of destruction a few months ago. She was going to win the award for reporter of the year. She could feel it all the way down to her toes. All she needed was a few more coups, like maybe an exclusive interview with that reclusive Captain Japan person, or even his raunchy sidekick, Bucky. Maybe she'd even get lucky and they would show up to battle these super villains and she could wrangle an interview of them after their triumph. She could just see Arika's face once it turned green with envy.   
  
Daydreams of award nominations were set aside as one of the cameramen gave a triumphant cry of joy. "It's ready. We're on in three, two." He silently mouthed the final "One."  
  
Akemi screwed on her brightest smile for the masses watching at home. "Good evening. This is Akemi Shutaro of Channel 6 bringing you this late breaking story. Tokyo Airport has come under assault by forces of a super-powered nature. Originally authorities acted on a tip about terrorists trying to smuggle a bio-weapon into the country. But upon trying to recover the item, these brave men and women discovered the container of evil was protected by people unknown, with powers unknown. But judging from the sounds of carnage coming from within, it's going to take a full-powered assault to bring these super-powered perpetrators of evil down."  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Between the heat and the dull thrum of the vice president of public relations' voice, Kodachi Kunou was about ready to doze off in the chair despite its inherent discomfort. She could swear the entire board of directors of Kunou Industries was hand-picked for their ability to speak in a monotone no matter what information they were delivering. From news they had made billions to telling her they were near bankruptcy, their voices never wavered, not even for a moment. Kodachi would lay good odds if any of them were shot, their screams of pain would be in the same droning voice as well. That she had been working on the quinjet project most of the evening did not help matters, but the least the man could do was modulate his voice a few octaves up or down and pretend to have interesting information.   
  
A yawn escaped her lips as her lids grew heavy. They were about to close for the second time in the meeting when a red light on her armrest control pad began flashing. The pad was actually positioned below the top of the long table and out of the line of sight of the members of the board. Subtly, Kodachi's finger touched a button to visually display what had caught the program's notice, but chose to leave the message silent, opting for it to subtitle the reporter's speech, which, knowing Kodachi's luck, would probably have been delivered in the same monotone as that of her board.  
  
As the words flashed across the screen, Kodachi's head shot up from its lolling position. A smile spread across her face, one that was mistaken by the speaker, who assumed she was pleased with his report on the current public perception polls concerning the company.  
  
Kodachi rose from her seat. "An urgent matter which I must personally attend to has come to my attention. Finish up and adjourn the meeting."  
  
There were words of protest, the most animated discussion the assemblage had made for the day, but Kodachi ignored them. Boardrooms were just another form of imprisonment anyway, with words and pie charts serving as restraints instead of bars. Even having to wear a chest plate felt less confining. And when it came to wearing the all-encompassing suit of armor, it felt downright liberating.   
  
At long last it was time for the Iron Rose to enter the fray again.  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Akane fretted nervously as she tried hard not to listen to what was going on in Doctor Tofu's backroom, which was difficult since a glass had somehow ended up in her hand and was now placed against the closed door. She wasn't eavesdropping, not really. She was just looking out for her employer's welfare, which was what attentive nurses did. Tofu had been acting strangely ever since that bizarre incident where those two supper villains had completely destroyed the new addition to the office before being apprehended by the authorities a few weeks ago. Luckily, the doctor was insured by Damage Control Inc., who specialized in covering cases of destruction by super-powered beings. There was still some question as to who was actually at fault since the villains claimed they had only taken over everyone's minds in the district and not destroyed any housing. Their declarations were silly, though. Akane never had her mind taken over. She would have remembered that sort of thing.   
  
Since that night, the doctor had been acting strangely, and not in the 'Kasumi is breathing the same air that I am so let's dance' strange, but secretive strange. Akane's feeling was that it might have had something to do with the destruction of the equipment he had received from his American friend. The entire apparatus he had built ended up destroyed when the building collapsed. Tofu had spent the better part of a week salvaging what he could from the debris, coming up with several boxes of chemicals that had been sheltered by falling crossbeams. But whatever it was that had been retrieved, he was being secretive with it. No matter how persistent she was, she couldn't get the doctor to reveal anything. Instead, when she asked, he would behave even more nervously, as though he was trying to hide something, which only served to fan the flames of interest further.   
  
What had also caught her attention and was cause for greater concern was that sometimes when the doctor was alone in the backroom, he would talk to himself. And not just some idle pondering of questions out loud, but lengthy and intense conversations. Occasionally it sounded like there was another voice in the room as well, a woman's voice, but that was impossible. Akane would know if someone had entered the room, since there was only one door leading to it and with the way her desk was situated Akane was stationed directly in front of it much of the day. Lately she would check before the doctor retreated back there just to make sure no one was hiding in it beforehand. Every time she searched, it was empty. Yet once the doctor returned to the backroom at the end of the day and locked the door behind him, the soft talking would begin. Akane had even gone so far as to peek through the high window to the room once so she could see firsthand if anyone else was present, but it was devoid of other people. It was just the doctor mixing some chemicals and making comments here and there to no one in particular. Once Akane thought she heard a feminine voice respond to one of the doctor's queries, but she realized it must have been the wind or a neighbor's radio drifting towards her ears and creating the illusion it had come from within. The room was too small and sparsely decorated to conceal another person.   
  
The strange matter made her hope Tofu hadn't gone insane. But if he had, Akane Tendou swore she would remain at his side to help nurse him back to health any way she could.  
  
Of course there were added stresses that would have added to the doctor having a potential nervous breakdown, such as the arrival of his mother. From the moment she appeared, Mrs. Ono seemed intent on getting her youngest son to live up to his filial obligations to settle down and raise a family. Akane had mixed feelings about that. No one had the right to force Tofu to marry someone, even if she was his parent (and boy, did Akane sympathize with that predicament). On the other hand, if he was to consider settling down with some girl, maybe one who would be graduating high school in a few years, well, Akane certainly couldn't see any problem with that. She had even received the Mrs. Ono mark of approval in that respect, after giving Akane some bizarre hip test that the old woman deemed a good method of screening prospective bridal candidates. However, Mrs. Ono lacked the patience to wait for Akane to get older, and was insistent Tofu marry soon. And, much to Akane's concern, for some odd reason the old woman seemed insistent that Kasumi was the perfect match for her son. It showed how little Mrs. Ono understood Dr. Tofu. Both he and Kasumi were nice people when taken individually, but they went together like oil and maple syrup. Akane knew that was a bad mix. She had tried it in Home Economics, and it hadn't turned out well at all. Everyone that sampled the mixture had agreed on that.  
  
No, it would be far better for everyone concerned if Kasumi married someone younger, like Ranma. Now there was an ideal suitor for Kasumi. Akane was going to have to try harder to make everyone see that. Ranma was the sort to go for older women too, since he was so physically mature already. When it came to him emotionally, well, that was another reason he needed an older woman; to help him become mature. Sure, Akane could do it if she felt so inclined, and Ranma wasn't the bad sort. Not bad at all. Very handsome, and he could be nice at times. She had seen him be so on more than one occasion, like that time he helped rescue a puppy that had somehow ended up in a tree it had become stuck in. While it was truly unfortunate the puppy turned out to be rabid, Ranma had no way of knowing that when he set out to rescue it. Afterwards, he had only grumbled about the shots for a little while, but it was still the thought that counted. He tended to be a bit dense at times and was as emotionally sensitive as a rock, but he was not an unpleasant person to be around. Not bad marriage material for any girl, perhaps even herself, if she was pressed on the matter.  
  
No, no, no! She had to stop thinking of him like that in relation to her. Kasumi was his ideal match and Kasumi he would marry, or Nabiki, in a pinch. Akane already had her own interests. It would take time, that was all. Time for Dr. Tofu to figure out that the one he was looking for was right under his nose the whole while. None were so blind as to the things right before their eyes, or so the old saying went.   
  
Two words from the nearby television caught her attention and shook her free of her concerns. Akane had left it on for background noise while she filed the doctor's patient files (which, thanks to his machine building and hiding in the backroom, he had fallen way behind with). Now the regular programming was interrupted due to some special report about super villains attacking an airport and holding the authorities at bay.   
  
Excitement filled Akane's heart. Another chance at action, another chance at losing her disability and moving like... No, moving better than those around her. Another chance to prove that she could be superior to everyone else instead of the joke they treated her like, and a lame joke at that.  
  
But there was Tofu to consider. What was he doing behind closed doors? Would he be all right if she flew off to play hero again? What if this was the time he went over the edge and she wasn't around? Of course, he seemed perfectly fine all day. He had seen his patients and there were no complaints from any them about his treatments. It was silly, since he had been working in the backroom for over a week and nothing bad had happened. It was not as though his sanity was on a tightrope or anything, he was just secretive and talked to himself. The clarion call to battle filled Akane's ears like the roaring of one's heartbeat after an intense run. She wanted to soar through the sky again and command the thunder to do her bidding as she smote her foes with fist and hammer.   
  
Akane knocked on the door, the fast patter of her fist giving away her anxiousness to leave. "Dr. Tofu, all the filing's done. It's about time for me to go. Would you be all right if I left you alone now?"  
  
"Sure, Akane. Thanks for all the help. I'll be fine. " The voice behind the door sounded aware and cheerful.  
  
That settled things. "I'll hold you to that." Akane grabbed her cane and hobbled out of the office as best as she could. There were several alleys nearby that she could use to change. All she needed was one tap of the cane and then it would be time to fly to the airport and kick some butt as only the Goddess of Thunder could do.  
  
xxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Dr. Tofu poked his head out just as Akane left the office. He looked curiously at the door to his clinic as it swung shut. "'I'll hold you to that'. What was that supposed to mean?"  
  
"Is she gone?" a tiny, feminine voice asked.  
  
Tofu turned to see the diminutive Kasumi standing on his desk once again. It was odd how her presence didn't have the same effect on him when she was in her miniature state. Oh, he still bore a heady feeling when he was in the same room with her, but he was coherent and could think quite well, though sometimes it required a bit of concentration. It was actually very nice to have conversations with her that didn't involve dancing with Betty-chan or trying to devour some inedible substance and perceiving it as a normal reaction to talking with her. Of course there was the drawback that she was a mere centimeter or so tall at the time, depending on her mood since she seemed to be able to control her actual height.   
  
"Is she gone?" Kasumi repeated.  
  
"Yes, she's gone," he finally answered.   
  
Now free to do as she pleased, Kasumi flexed her wings and took off, flitting about the office. "Good. It'll be nice to fly around without worrying about Akane seeing me. I wouldn't want to frighten her. It would be difficult to explain what's happened to me. It's far better she never finds out about this. I don't think anyone but you would understand."   
  
Tofu watched her fly past, still marveling at her quickness and agility. It was like watching a hummingbird, considering the speed which she darted through the air. It was less distracting now that she had finally sewn some outfits for that size. Although for some reason she had a developed an affinity for daring garments that fit her snugly in many of the more sensitive areas of her body. Had she worn any of them at normal size, Tofu wagered he wouldn't have been the only one to become incoherent around her. She explained it as a way to keep people from connecting Kasumi Tendou with the Wasp, since even if someone was able to see through her disguise, there was no way they would believe a girl as conservative as Kasumi would dare wear such risqué clothing. Tofu was uncertain if that was the whole story. Kasumi seemed to revel in being able to wear such garments and act less reserved than in her normal housekeeping role. Some of the things she said made him blush furiously.   
  
The change in behavior seemed to hover around her idea of them becoming super heroes together. Since acquiring her powers, she had become intent on tracking down and taking on more super villains. Tofu's thought processes went along different lines. He was perfectly happy being a doctor and was content to leave confrontations with insanely powerful homicidal people to others more suited to the role. He had even less desire to walk around at a height of forty feet and go around kicking people that, frankly, could hurt him back an awful lot. Unlike Kasumi, he had been rendered unconscious during the fight, the first time such had happened in his life, and there was no urgent need to repeat the experience. But no matter how persuasive his arguments were, Kasumi would not be swayed. To make matters worse, her enthusiasm was infectious. Between her obvious delight at the chance of becoming a super hero, combined with Tofu's desire to protect her, he had reluctantly agreed to become one as well. However, it was under the condition that it was only part-time since he did have a business to run. Thus, with his course decided, 'Giant Man' had been born.  
  
Making outfits had been both easy and difficult. Easy for him, difficult for Kasumi. Since Hank Pym had planned on experimenting with the size-changing upon himself first, he acquired a uniform composed of unstable molecules, a new innovation from an American scientist named Richards. These unstable molecules somehow enabled the outfit to change in accordance with the wearer's form, a sort of variation on the ultimate elastic. It was so effective that even when Tofu grew, the outfit would change in size instead of tearing. He didn't understand how it worked, only that it did and saved him the problem of buying material large enough to cover his giant frame.  
  
That solved his clothing problem, but not Kasumi's. Since there was only one outfit made up of unstable molecules, another couldn't be purchased. They were so incredibly expensive that even if Tofu sold his practice he still wouldn't have enough money. Henry hadn't bought his; Richards had apparently given him the uniform out of friendship. That that left Kasumi to seek out an alternative. Her answer was to sew up a number of outfits when she was at Wasp size. She had to put them on when she was small, and wasn't able to grow with them on since the material would rip, treating everyone to a real eyeful of her.  
  
A small trickle of blood dripped from his nose as he remembered the last time Kasumi grew without suitable garments on. He shook the memory from his head. There were more important matters to be concerned about. During the course of the last few weeks, Kasumi had sewn many outfits for herself, spending most of her free time doing so. The one she was currently wearing was creamy white. Offsetting the material were blue boots and blue edging around the neck where a 'W' formed part of the border that led down to the top of her bosom. The amount of cleavage shown (small, in reality, but not so insignificant when one realized it was proportional to the rest of her) was far more revealing than anything Kasumi had ever worn before. One arm and leg had been left completely bare between the outfit and her glove and boot. Certainly it saved material, but with how high both were cut, it left little doubt that despite her duties around the home, Kasumi had managed to stay in very good shape. The mask she wore covered the upper half of her face, allowing her brown hair to flow freely behind her as she darted through the air.   
  
As for Tofu's own outfit, he was happy that it covered everything but his mouth and eyes. With Kasumi lending a hand, the outfit was now dyed red save for his boots, gloves, and shorts, which were black. The hood had been redesigned to go over his face as a mask, something far more necessary for him than Kasumi with his larger features. The outfit might have been plain compared to Kasumi's, but Tofu preferred things that way. He was a man of simple tastes, after all.  
  
The other item Tofu had been working on was something Henry had left in his notes, a variation of the Pym Particles using compressed gas rather than the machine. It was cheaper to make, and with the chemicals Henry had sent that Tofu managed to salvage, simple to mix. There were two problems, though. One was the gas only worked to shrink an object. The second was that without the gas that reversed the shrinkage, one would remain trapped at that diminutive height, potentially forever. On the beneficial side, once mixed together the gas could shrink other items too, such as clothing and whatever might be held within the hands.   
  
Given the limited supply and the risks involved with the gas, the machine was clearly the better option, but since it was smashed far beyond any hope of repair, this was now the only other alternative if Tofu sought to become smaller. The reason for that was that it would allow him to go anywhere that Kasumi could. There would be times when he would be unable to grow and use his increased strength or endurance, and the gas could be the only way for him to travel out of sight or escape from a foe. Likewise, if Kasumi encountered any dangers and became incapacitated in some small, out of the way place, it would allow him to come to her side and be a help rather than a too-large hindrance.  
  
"Doctor Tofu, did you hear that?!"  
  
The excitement in Kasumi's voice was unmistakable. So lost in thought was Tofu though, that he had failed to hear what she was referring to. "I didn't catch that?"  
  
Kasumi pointed to the television that had been left on. "They're saying that there are a couple of super villains assaulting the airport. Let's go out there and stop them."  
  
Inwardly, Tofu cringed. He didn't think he was ready for this --he doubted he ever would be-- but Kasumi was so delighted that he couldn't bring himself to argue with her. "Sure, but how do we get there? It's too far to fly, and it would take a long time for me to walk even at my full height." He only hoped the distance would dissuade her from traveling out there and allow the authorities to handle matters.  
  
Unperturbed, Kasumi said, "Put some clothes on over your outfit, and we'll take a cab. I'll hide in your pocket until we get there."  
  
A soft sigh escaped Tofu's lips. He chose clothing that was cheap and worn, since he might have to grow and ruin it. It appeared the first 'official' case for the new superhero team of the Wasp and Giant Man was about to get underway. The only bright side would be the adventure would serve to keep him out of his mother's sight for a while. Compared to her constant harping about marrying and raising a family, fighting super-villains would almost seem relaxing.  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
The squad car Daredevil had stowed away on pulled up a short distance from the newly shattered remains of Kobayakawa's car. He leapt off the roof before the car even stopped, landing as nimbly as a cat before running into the terminal. For just a brief moment, his radar sense caught the edge of someone with what seemed to be a bow and quiver full of arrows run into the building ahead of him. Whether friend or foe to the villains inside, he was uncertain, but he entered the structure with a more cautious step, mindful of any ambushes.   
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Five more shots were right on target. The bullets impacted in the exact spots they were aimed at. Each of the metal projectiles imparted a tremendous amount of force. Combined, they were enough to crack an engine block in half.   
  
Power Man looked casually down at his chest where the bullets had hit. "Geez, you guys don't know when to give up." He hefted a set of interconnected seats over his head and threw them at the security personnel as though he were in kindergarten playing a vicious version of musical chairs. The width of the makeshift missile allowed Power Man to strike all five of the officers at the same time. The force with which he threw it guaranteed their medical plans would be activated.   
  
With the last of the distractions dealt with, Power Man turned to watch the yellow blur that was his partner finish off the last of the latest wave of attackers. "How many did you get?"  
  
Whizzer pulled to a stop directly in front of the big man. "Total, or just in this latest batch?"  
  
"Total."  
  
"Thirty-five."  
  
"Shoot! I've only got twenty-seven. No, wait. Twenty-eight. I almost forgot the one who tried hitting me with a tire chain. Where do you suppose he found a tire chain in the middle of an airport?"  
  
"Near a tire?" Whizzer shrugged. "This is getting a bit hectic. I hope those people we're waiting for show up soon. I'm getting tired of running around and beating up these annoying pests. They're almost as bad as the Chinese army. Not really dangerous, save in large numbers."  
  
"I still say we don't need any help. I think the four of us are more than enough to deal with any threats to the boss or his plan. Besides, we only need a couple more days."  
  
Whizzer shook his head. "No way. Four people aren't enough to call us the Lethal Legion."  
  
"But you're the only one who calls us that."  
  
"Right now, but when we become famous and masters of the world, it'll strike fear into the hearts of everyone."  
  
"I'd rather be respected than feared."  
  
"Fear is better. At least that's what the boss always says, and you can't deny he's gone a long way ruling through fear instead of respect."  
  
"Good point. I guess you might be right. Maybe calling ourselves the Lethal Legion is a good idea. You're definitely better at this super villain stuff than I am."  
  
Whizzer gave an affectionate punch to his comrade's shoulder. "Just follow my lead. I'll make an ultra-tough, yet stylish, super villain out of you yet."  
  
"That would be a change over most of the guys I usually fight. Actually, it would be a change from everyone I've fought," a voice called out.  
  
Power Man turned just in time to have a well-aimed billy club ricochet off his face. Even as the cylinder bounced off the floor and returned to the thrower's hand, the huge man's sole reaction to the blow was to rub his jaw. "Congratulations. That's the hardest hit I've taken all day."  
  
Underneath his mask, Daredevil scowled. Not only was his opponent still standing and refusing to show the slightest effect from bring struck in the face with a full-forced throw, but the huge man's heartbeat hardly moved up a notch from its already low rate. It appeared he was finally going to have his skills taken to the limit. Now confronted with the actuality of his long standing desire, he was no longer certain that was necessarily a good thing.  
  
"Ohhh, you're a super hero, aren't you?" Whizzer asked, barely able to contain his excitement. "What's your name?"  
  
"Daredevil." Even Mousse was surprised at the heart rate of the person speaking to him. It was like a hummingbird's, only faster. It was a miracle it didn't explode on the spot from the way it should have been overtaxed.  
  
Unable to contain his joy, Whizzer began vibrating uncontrollably. "This is great! I was hoping we could fight one of you super heroes. China doesn't have any to speak of. It's kind of boring, really. But when I heard I was coming to Japan I got excited, especially with the deluge of heroes that have been coming around recently. I've been reading about them in Newsweek. Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm the Whizzer."  
  
Daredevil cringed. "The Whizzer? It sounds like you have the ability to go to the restroom really fast." Suddenly 'Stilt Man' didn't seem like such a stupid name.   
  
Power Man turned on his friend. "I told you that outfit was a dumb color and the name was stupid, but you wouldn't listen."  
  
"I know, I know. It never occurred to me people would associate my name with that. I'll change my costume and name at the first opportunity when we get back. I had several costumes made up and a list of other names to go with them since I had such a hard time deciding." Whizzer returned his attention to their opponent and pointed at the large man. "My friend over there is Power Man."  
  
"That's not my real name. It's Lime," Power Man explained.  
  
"Oh, that's much better," Daredevil said. Okay, maybe they didn't come across as the brightest of opponents, but at least they didn't have completely moronic powers. Of course, that could be actually bad, all things considered.   
  
Whizzer turned to his comrade. "Take him on one at a time or together?"  
  
"Why not together?"  
  
"Good point. We wouldn't be decent bad guys if we fought fairly."  
  
Whizzer was just about to rush forward when a movement from out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. It was very quick, and one with lesser reflexes would not have had time to react, but such rules didn't apply to the speedster. Impossibly fast he ran, preventing the shaft from hitting him at a closer range, but the distance still wasn't enough as the force of the explosion from the blast arrow ripped into the floor of the terminal right where he had been standing a moment before. Between the shrapnel and the force from the blast, the Whizzer found himself knocked off his feet and sent crashing to the ground.   
  
"That didn't feel good at all," the speedster moaned as he tried to regain his footing and failed on his first attempt.   
  
Hawkeye rushed out into the open with another arrow notched in her bow. She had maneuvered behind her opponents while they had wasted time with the newcomer, Daredevil, if she had heard correctly. Apparently he was on her side. It was hard to tell lately. One thing Whizzer had been on target about was the sudden proliferation of super heroes. Hawkeye had already met two. It would be good to talk with another one. She felt a bit alone in the world with her newfound occupation, and the idea of having a partner appealed to her in some way. Of course she would have to prove her worth and help Daredevil in taking out these two buffoons before she could 'talk shop'. Given how bright the bad guys in question seemed, she and Daredevil should be deep in conversation in under ten minutes.  
  
Power Man hurled a sizable potted plant at Hawkeye before she could get a second shot at the fallen Whizzer. She was able to leap out of the way of the large projectile as it continued hurtling through the air until it hit an ATM machine, cracking it open like a bulky piñata that spewed money out of its innards instead of candy.  
  
Seeing the move bought Whizzer enough time to get back to his feet, Power Man cracked his knuckles and turned to face the man who had dared to assault him with the throwing stick. "Two-on-two just means it'll take longer."  
  
"But not long," Daredevil leapt into the air and sent a volley of chains shooting out from the sleeves of his robe. Rather than hurling them directly towards his large opponent, the blind adventurer whirled them around twice before spinning the weighted chains at Power Man. The metal encircled his upper body several times, pinning his arms to his side.   
  
It took only the slightest bit of exertion on the villain's part to expand the muscles of his chest, snapping the chains as though they were nothing more than string. He held one of the shattered links in his hand. "Is that the best you can do?"  
  
A large metal bat appeared from the robes and into Daredevil's hands. He swung with all his might, delivering a solid blow over the top of Power Man's head.   
  
The large man shook his head again. "Pretty good swing there. I felt that too. You should try out for the major leagues."  
  
Daredevil's radar sense informed him that the impression of Power Man's head that had been left in the length of metal meant it would be a good idea to abandon the weapon. He tossed it aside and made a mental note to replace it later, since he only had two left in his robe. "Fine, we can do it the old-fashioned way." He fell into a fighting stance.  
  
"Good." Power Man took a swing at Daredevil's head. The red-garbed adventurer easily got out of the way.   
  
"You're fast." The huge man took another swing. Again his opponent ducked. "Go ahead, don't fight back," Power Man taunted as he lashed out with a third fist that failed to connect. He wasn't concerned. He had sparred with Mint, or rather Whizzer, on a number of occasions, and this Daredevil was nowhere near as fast as the speedster. Like his friend, the smaller man would eventually tire and slow down, and then all it would take was one, two blows at the most, and the fight would be history. It was just a question of stamina now, and Power Man's was as impressive as his prodigious strength. All he needed was time.  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Across the terminal, Hawkeye sprang back up and notched an arrow, pointing it at where the Whizzer had been lying a handful of seconds before.   
  
There was no one there.  
  
A blow connected with the back of her head. The cry of, "Surprise!" came hot on its heels.  
  
Training coming to the fore, Hawkeye rolled with the blow and came up firing in the direction of the voice. The quick recovery seemed to surprise the speedster, and he barely shifted his head to the side fast enough to avoid the metal-studded arrow from hitting him right in the skull. He ran backwards to gain some distance from his opponent. "Hey, that was nasty. If it had hit, it would have left a big lump on my head."  
  
"That was the idea!" Hawkeye cursed as she shot another stun arrow at her opponent, but he darted out of its way as well. He did the same to another blast arrow, which sailed past and blew up yet more of the terminal, though this time the explosion was too far out of range to affect him.   
  
"I thought you were going to be dangerous, but the only danger I'm facing is falling asleep from boredom." Whizzer yawned for effect.   
  
Hawkeye grinned. Now that she had some grasp of his tactics, she came up with a plan. She fired again, this time the arrow going high over his head. A net opened up the moment it passed over the villain.  
  
Or at least where he had been. Unfortunately, it was with this arrow's release that Whizzer changed tactics and instead of dodging, advanced forward with blinding speed and struck his opponent squarely in the jaw. Though his strength was average, the velocity of the blow served to increase the damage it inflicted and sent Hawkeye sprawling painfully to the ground.   
  
"Damn!" she muttered through a sore jaw. She had barely seen him move. This was almost worse than the time she had been hypnotized into believing her arrows were snakes.  
  
As she returned to her feet, bow and arrow at the ready, the blur hit again, knocking her flat. The salty tang of blood assailed her tongue. A third time, and she couldn't even return to her feet as he kicked her in the gut at super speed. Her opponent made certain to move back a good fifteen meters after administering the blow. Hawkeye tried returning to her feet, but fell over once. She was going to need several seconds to recover.  
  
Confident he had the upper hand, Whizzer said, "You only have trick arrows, don't you? No super powers at all."  
  
"Sorry to disappoint you." The speedster seemed to have an affinity to talk excessively. Hawkeye used this to her advantage as she regained her bearing while still pretending to be so disoriented she couldn't stand up. Another plan came to her. She hoped she could get him to wait another handful of seconds so she could enact it. As long as the idiot kept toying with her, she had a chance.  
  
Whizzer gave a sad shake of his head. "A pity. You're just a trained weapons user. Not a real super hero at all. I feel like I'm wasting my time."  
  
Gnashing her teeth at the insult, Hawkeye let her hand slip to the quiver on her back and pretended to fumble with the arrows. Just a few more seconds.  
  
Whizzer tensed as Hawkeye finally drew an arrow, but even he was taken aback as the archer proceeded to fire it into a wall off to the side, halfway between the speedster and his opponent. "Absolutely pathetic. I hit you four times, and it was only four times since I didn't use my repeated punching ability, and you still fold up like a house of cards." He made a disappointed sound as Hawkeye slowly regained a vertical base and drew another arrow, pointing it at the opposite wall.   
  
The bumbling move made Whizzer sigh once again. "I'm going to do you a favor and break that bow and dump all your arrows in a river. This line of work is too dangerous for a normal person like you. I think I'll keep the mask, though. I'll make a trophy out of it since you are technically the first super hero I've beaten, even if you aren't all that super."  
  
"You know what your problem is? You talk way too much." Hawkeye spat in his direction.   
  
"And now you won't talk at all!" Whizzer began to run forward even as Hawkeye finally fired the notched arrow into the opposite wall. The speedster would be aiming for his opponent's jaw this time, intent on reducing it to powder with repeated blows for daring to imply that he pontificated too much.   
  
He was so intent on beating Hawkeye to a pulp that he failed to see the wire tied to each arrow, one that was now taut thanks to the second shot, and at ankle level. He felt it though as he unwittingly ran into it, tripping over the wire and rolling across the ground at an inhumanly high speed. His momentum was too great for him to stop as he smashed into a service desk next to one of the departure areas. Now it was his turn to be stunned.   
  
Once her opponent encountered his makeshift break pad, Hawkeye immediately drew another stun arrow. This time she would not miss.  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Power Man threw his twentieth blow, this time almost touching the red-garbed adventurer's mask. He was getting close now, and this Daredevil was starting to show signs of fatigue, not to mention fear. The idiot hadn't even tried to throw a punch the entire time.   
  
Feeling unusually generous, Power Man said, "Look, you aren't even bothering to fight back, not that you could harm me. Why not just run for it? I'll let you go. Unlike Mint, I mean Whizzer, I don't really care about fighting you super types. I just want to finish my job and go home." He threw a half-hearted punch in Daredevil's direction, hoping it would persuade the nuisance to go away.   
  
"A generous offer, but I think not." It was the opening Daredevil was waiting for. With a flick of the wrist his billy club appeared in his hand. He jammed it upward with all the force he could muster, aiming at one critical spot on Power Man's arm. It was practically an all-or-nothing blow, since the blind man would be off-balance if the attack failed.   
  
Daredevil's aim was true as the end of the club hit at just the precise spot at the shoulder, causing Power Man to cry out in pain and grab his now limp arm. It was just as he thought. The man's skin was supernaturally tough, but not enough to make him immune to pain. A powerful blow, one strong enough to shatter a normal man's arm, delivered to the center of a cluster of nerves located at the shoulder was enough to at least temporarily neutralize one of the big man's limbs. Satisfied that Power Man was not invincible, the blind man went for his next attack.   
  
"I'll kill you for that!" Power Man raged as he brought his good arm up. However, Daredevil stepped back, throwing some sort of white powder into the larger man's face. The move was unexpected enough that Power Man couldn't close his eyes in time. Instantly, his eyes teared up, blinding him. All he could do was roar in even greater agony and flail about.  
  
Blinded, Power Man missed the smile that blossomed on Daredevil's features at another gamble that had worked. As obscenely strong as the appropriately named Power Man was, his eyes were not so tough that they could ignore the effects of salt thrown into them. However, sensing the effect this newfound, albeit temporary, handicap had on his opponent: the now racing heartbeat, the awkward charging and colliding into objects that were in 'plain sight', and the anguish both physical and mental of losing one of the primary senses, made Daredevil feel a slight bit of remorse. Blindness was not something he wished on anyone, no matter how well he had managed to adjust to his own condition. That Daredevil possessed little choice in the matter did little to ease his conscience concerning his actions.   
  
Power Man threw an awkward blow in Daredevil's general direction, one that had no hope whatsoever of striking its intended target. The blind one took advantage of his opponent's clumsy blow by grabbing him under the arm and placing a leg in front of the large man's own. One quick toss later Power Man was flat on his stomach, temporarily winded by the unexpected attack. Daredevil brought out a pair of titanium handcuffs, hoping that with Power Man's hands brought behind him, he would lack the leverage necessary to summon his full strength and shatter the restraints.   
  
Suddenly, he heard a movement come from somewhere behind him. His radar sense made out a figure, slightly smaller and lighter than him, racing up in what would have been anyone else's blind spot. The person, a woman if his radar sense was accurate, was quick and inhumanly silent; he could barely detect her footsteps even with his heightened hearing. But no one could sneak up on the 'man without fear'; not even an ant. Forewarned, Daredevil had time to judge the way she approached and mentally prepared a counter-attack.  
  
He half turned and flung his hand behind him. A large number of chains with weighted objects shot out, arcing to where this mystery woman would be, taking her out long before she reached him. Much to Daredevil's own surprise, she either sensed the attack or her reflexes were better than his. She nimbly leapt aside without breaking stride, allowing the chains to go harmlessly past.  
  
And then she was upon him, attacking without hesitation. Daredevil could hear the sound of something small cutting through the air as she brought her arm forward, something that held the smell of well-oiled metal that reached his nostrils. She had pulled a weapon, small and sharp, possibly a sai, from the way it cut the air and did little to affect her 'profile' as defined by his radar sense. Daredevil parried the blow at the last second. A clang rang loud in his ears, and the muscles of his arm protested slightly over the impact they suffered. The woman was strong, not with Power Man's level, but judging by the force of the blow, possibly as strong as Daredevil himself.   
  
Just as quick she ducked under his counterstrike. His senses reached out and told him more of her physical attributes even as he simultaneously formulated his next attack. Lighter and a couple of centimeters smaller. Heartbeat, though excited, not so fast as to indicate panic. Style very controlled and professional. Someone used to fighting then, and in superior physical condition, but nothing to indicate superhuman abilities. She wore little clothing, and it was skintight, judging by both the image produced in his radar sense and the fact he could not hear her outfit rustling as she moved. Long hair though; he could hear it move with every motion of her head. The scent of her skin was fresh, not so much perfumed from soaps and oils but closer to the smell a younger person produced. Somewhere within five years of his age, possibly older, but highly trained and possessing no compunction against killing, since the blade thrust was a fatal one for his head. Still, she would fall short of his own skills. Aside from his own superior physical abilities and Stick's mentoring, no one was as highly motivated as he was at fighting and winning. He had failed to protect someone once. Never again, no matter the cost.  
  
Having taken the measure of his opponent, Daredevil feinted an attack to the head with his club and followed up with a kick to her mid-section. She blocked the first, then much to his surprise, bent backwards to evade the second rather than leaping out of the way. It was a near thing, he could feel the tips of his toes scrape against her uncovered stomach, but her flexibility allowed her to dodge the kick and left her in a position to counter attack while he was very vulnerable.   
  
Counting on her trying to skewer him again, he put everything into deflecting a blade thrust from her right. However, she surprised him once more by lashing out with a punch to his chest with her free hand, then followed it up with a kick to the back of his knee, bringing him low. He tried to bring his billy club back around, but had it unceremoniously kicked out of his hand.   
  
Her opponent temporarily disarmed, the woman tried to skewer him again with her sai. But even she was surprised by the speed he employed to produce another billy club that blocked the blow.   
  
"Damn Hidden Weapons Technique," she hissed, her voice a higher pitch than Daredevil would have imagined. It also said something about her that she recognized the style. Not many would, it was not common knowledge and few mastered it. And, unless he was mistaken, there was just the faintest hint of an accent underlying her Japanese. It was in the inflection of 'Hidden'. No one else could have detected it, he barely had even with his superhuman hearing, but it was there. A Chinese accent, or so he thought. It was hard to tell, and unimportant at the moment.  
  
He pushed the thoughts out of his mind as he finally connected with a kick to the woman's side. She let out a tight gasp of air, but he could feel her roll with the blow, taking little damage from it. Recovering quickly, she threw the sai directly at his head. It was an unusual move in that it wasn't really a throwing weapon. He batted it out of the air, and then found himself confronted with a spinning leap kick the woman had decided to deliver while the blade was in mid-air. By the gods, she was fast and skilled. Even he would have had difficulty matching that feat. So instead, he moved back, allowing her toe to strike the floor rather than the leg she had been aiming at.   
  
At the last second he understood his mistake. Concentrating so much on staying alive, he had forgotten there were two opponents, and not realized that the other one had recovered. Despite being off-balance, he shifted forward, and the fist that was aimed at his head only stuck a glancing blow off the base of his neck and shoulder. Against a man with normal strength, it would have only hurt somewhat. From Power Man, it was like someone driving a metal bar into it. Daredevil fell unconscious immediately.  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Hawkeye aimed her next arrow at the Whizzer's stomach. She could not wait for this fight to be over. That costume of his was just tasteless and making her eyes sore.   
  
She released the bowstring. There was a twang and the snap of the bow itself as the arrow was released. A smile blossomed on Hawkeye's face. There was no feeling in the world quite as satisfying as the slight jerk that a bow produced when an arrow was fired from it. She had tried to explain it to other people, but only fellow archers who allowed themselves to be fully immersed in the art understood. It was the result of becoming one with a weapon, a conjoining of sorts. Perhaps it was some sort of psychological substitute for not being able to become one with a man, but it still served to thrill and excite her even after she had fired tens of thousands of arrows in her lifetime.   
  
And this arrow was no different. It sped through the air, true to its target. It was just about to strike when it encountered another object mere centimeters before its intended target. Almost in slow motion, Hawkeye saw the shaft cut neatly in half by a curved katana, both halves harmlessly tossed aside.   
  
A scowl creased her features as she looked at the man who dared prevent her from achieving victory against the annoying speedster. He wore a garish outfit, reminiscent of someone out of a Dumas novel. Frilly ornamentation outlined his ridiculously outdated eighteenth-century European garb, and the color scheme was only slightly less painful than the Whizzer's, a sedate purple with red spread throughout, mostly in the leggings and vest. He even had one of those ridiculous plumed hats with what appeared to be half a peacock's butt stuck in it. A bit of black hair rolled out from underneath the hat to come almost to his shoulders, and he wore a large a purple bandanna to cover his head and the upper half of his face. Two eye holes were cut out, allowing him to see.  
  
"What are you, the Musketeer?" Hawkeye asked.  
  
The man bowed. "No, I possess no musket. Such a weapon is unseemly and inelegant. I find only the naked steel of the sword is suitable to a warrior of my caliber."  
  
"Musketeers didn't use katanas either," Hawkeye pointed out.  
  
"I tell you I'm not a musketeer. Regrettably, my weapon was only manufactured in the katana version. It's what we were going to market first."  
  
"Musketeers weren't really known for marketing things."  
  
A sheen of sweat would have formed on the warrior's brow, save for the fact that the bandanna that also served as his mask soaked it up. "Ah, forget I said anything about marketing. It has nothing to do with my secret identity, which you need not concern yourself about. And I am not a musketeer."  
  
"Then who are you?"  
  
"I thought you would never ask."   
  
Suddenly, Hawkeye wished she hadn't since she sensed a speech coming up. There was something about the man that hinted at the ability to pontificate about anything. far worse than even Whizzer could manage. She attempted a preventive measure by firing a grapple arrow at him, but again he slashed the attack out of mid-air.   
  
"You did not let me finish my introduction."  
  
"No need. I'll just call you 'Dead Meat' and leave it at that." She fired another stun arrow, which he sliced in two as casually as swatting an annoying insect.   
  
"You did not wish to feel outclassed by learning my identity," He continued. "I do not blame you. There are none that can rival one such as myself." He almost missed the next arrow shot at him. "Once I was a wealthy scion of a noble family, the idol of all who glanced at my handsome visage. I had it all, looks, a sophisticated nature, intelligence--"  
  
"A mouth that never stopped moving."  
  
"Your uncouth language betrays the low born status you suffer from. It is called verbosity, and it is suitable when one as wise as myself begets the opportunity to impart knowledge to knaves such as yourself." A fifth arrow struck the ground. "Since you seem intent upon futilely attacking me, I shall give you the short version of who I am so that this fight might end more quickly. I do have someone to meet, after all. Now then, I was dissatisfied with the life of the idle rich, I became a wandering adventurer. A warrior of sorts, a handsome, dashing young warrior who is the idol of women and the envy of all. I hide my identity from jealous fools who would do me harm because they are inferior to me, men such as yourself. Bearing that in mind, know now that you will meet your doom at the rapier-like wit of the Swordsman." He struck a pose.  
  
"That name's not quite as lame as I thought it would be."  
  
"Of course not. I picked it out myself."  
  
"Too bad I can't say the same for the rest of you, especially that outfit. You should have gone with a more home-based image, like a samurai or something."  
  
"The costume shop was all out of samurai outfits, so I stole this one. I can make anything look good, given my handsome features."  
  
Hawkeye could not help herself and snorted in laughter.  
  
The laughter was more than the Swordsman could take. He stepped forward, his intent unmistakable.   
  
Hawkeye fired another arrow. This time she nearly hit the oaf due to the closer proximity and the lack of time her opponent had to react to the projectile. Finally she had hope. She took a half step forward before she realized something was wrong. It took a moment to figure out what it was: Whizzer was no longer lying an a half-formed heap next to the wall.   
  
A gust of air tickled the back of her neck. She turned as fast as she could, ignoring the Swordsman for a moment. It was as she feared; Whizzer stood behind her with his arms crossed casually as though he had been there the entire time.  
  
"Crap!" she had the time to say as his fist came at her before she could bring her bow to bear. For some odd reason, she found it easy to focus on the fist. Odd because usually he was little more than a blur when he moved. She saw it hitting her in the stomach...  
  
...And it felt like she had been hit with a dozen sledgehammers. She was unable to breathe, unable to do anything other than instantly black out from the pain, almost wishing for death as agony dragged her down to a darkness that sought to claim her.  
  
"How'd you like my 'Hundred in One Blows'?" the Whizzer bragged to his fallen opponent. It was a move he disliked, since he had to stand still to deliver it, but it had power behind it, or more specifically a lot of little power behind it since it was him hitting one hundred and one times in the blink of an eye. Employing it was an intense act of concentration, and his arm usually felt tired after using it more than three times within an hour, but even on an off day it could still hurt even the massive Power Man.  
  
Whizzer was admiring his handiwork when he found a sword thrust under his chin.   
  
"I required no assistance in dispatching my foe, knave," the Swordsman said in a voice that held more pomposity than menace.   
  
"It was personal. He made me run into that wall and it hurt like heck. My back is still aching." Whizzer grabbed at it and winced slightly for the man's benefit. "Hey, did you say your name is the Swordsman?"  
  
"Indeed. The veritable 'Blue Thunder' of Japan." The warrior momentarily forgot he was with a possible opponent and bowed. "I see my reputation has spread beyond this island. Soon, the whole world shall know of my stature and skill. Hahahaha!" he laughed to the heavens, which responded with a lightning bolt striking in the distance.  
  
The effect delighted the Whizzer, as well as learning the name of his ally. "Great! You're one of the guys we're looking for. I'm called Whizzer."  
  
"Truly an odious super-power. Still, it could have been worse. You could have been named 'The Crapper'."  
  
"That's it! I'm ditching the name now. Call me Mint until we get back and I change my name and costume," he grumbled. "Anyway, now that you're here. Allow me to welcome you to the Lethal Legion."  
  
"That is the name of the group I'll be leading?"  
  
"Leading?"  
  
"Of course, for one of my intellect and birth, it is only fitting that I lead."  
  
"Actually, I think the boss is the one in charge. He's the one who actually has the brains and power to take over the world. He's also the one who hired you as added muscle and paying your fee and all."  
  
"Oh yes. I sometimes forget that in severing my ties to the past to keep from being killed, either through mysterious other powers or boredom, I now need to lower myself by occasionally accepting contributions in return for lending my talents to those deserving of them. Now, as to my payment, once we're ruling the world, I am to be given Kyoto, correct?"  
  
"That's what the boss said. He's always held the opinion from the beginning that once he takes over, he'll need strong people who are easy to manipulate to delegate leadership roles to. He seemed to think you, me, and Power Man should fit the bill in those regards."  
  
The Swordsman held his sword up high above his head. "He could have chosen no more suitable warrior to enlist in his cause."  
  
Having finally met the Swordsman, Whizzer found himself inclined to agree, even if he was nothing more than a weapon wielder and not a true super villain in Whizzer's estimation. "Now all we have to do is wait for the other recruit and we can get out of here."  
  
As though in response to the speedster's statement, the deep baritone voice of Power Man carried over to where he stood. The words spoken were something along the lines of, "Those really are titties?"  
  
"Yes, they are, and you may not touch them! Try it and you'll lose an eye."  
  
Both Whizzer and Swordsman turned to see the squabbling pair heading their way. Power Man was walking slightly behind a very attractive woman. She wore a skintight body suit, boots, and curious long gloves that went halfway up to her elbow. Her mane of long black hair was partially kept under wraps by a bandanna. All of her attire was the same blood red color. A pair of sais stuck out of a sash tied at her waist, and the hilt of a katana poked out of a scabbard strapped to her back.  
  
Whizzer was at her side within a blink of the eye. "Aren't you the girl Power Man and I were approaching earlier?"  
  
"Yes, you idiots. I can't believe you tried to come into contact with me when you were obviously being watched. Were you trying to get me caught, too?"  
  
"Actually we just wanted to check out your breasts." Power Man started to bring his hand forward to paw at them again. In retaliation, the woman the woman lashed out with her foot between his legs. Power Man's eyes crossed slightly. "I think I felt that, too. Oww." He backed off much more eagerly this time.  
  
Swordsman was at the woman's side in an instant. Taking his foppish hat from his head, he gave a deep formal bow. As he rose back up, he pulled a bouquet of flowers from the hat and handed them to the woman. "Alas, never in all my years have I met so lovely and lethal a maiden. Already my eyes swim in your allure and bask in your appearance. My life has been naught but a void bereft of love until this moment. Allow me to humbly introduce myself. I am but a wandering warrior called the Swordsman, and I shall ever be at your service from this point onward. Might I ask your name, oh dark maiden of danger?"  
  
"I am Elektra of the Hand. I am their chief assassin and the member assigned the task of rendering aid to this self-proclaimed future emperor of the world." She looked at the bouquet in disgust, then handed it to Whizzer.   
  
He stared in awe at bouquet and told Power Man, "Look, she must like me a lot. She's given me flowers and already gotten to first base."  
  
Swordsman ignored the woman's gesture; he already had his eyes settled on his prey and her adoration of him was inevitable. "I see. Since we will be future comrades in arms, and relying on one another in life and death situations, it would be best if we got to know each other better. Therefore, at the first available opportunity I shall allow you to date me."  
  
"And I shall allow you to bleed all over me if you try," Elektra said with a tongue as sharp as her sais.   
  
"Then it is a date." Swordsman bowed again, causing the assassin to roll her eyes.   
  
She turned to the other members of this inane 'Lethal Legion' she was supposed to be temporarily aligning herself with at the behest of her masters. The trio appeared stupid, but powerful and skilled. She would be able to thrive among the fools, especially since they seemed overly enamored with her. From what little information she had gleaned from her masters, their boss was far more brilliant. There was the realistic potential for him to possibly emerge victorious in his attempt at laying claim to, if not the whole world, at least a significant portion of it. If he did, in return for their cooperation the Hand would be given free reign to spread their influence through the entirety of Asia without fear of reprisals from the authorities. And if he failed, the ten million dollars he had deposited in their bank accounts for hiring her services would still allow the organization to come out ahead.   
  
"Time to go," Whizzer announced.   
  
"Ewww. That's disgusting, you pervert! I don't wanna to see you go to the bathroom all over the place. Find a restroom or something."  
  
A quartet of heads turned to the source of the remark.   
  
Whizzer shouted, "All right! Another super... hey, he doesn't have a costume."  
  
Ranma cracked his knuckles. "You got that right. I'm no super hero. I'm just a normal guy called Ranma Saotome that's going to kick all of your butts."  
  
Whizzer shook his head sadly. "Someone take care of this loser with delusions of grandeur. We don't have time to waste. We need to fly back to China. The final stage of the plan is almost ready to begin, and the boss wants us back as additional muscle in case something unexpected happens." Whizzer knew he was going to get yelled at for this delay. He just knew it.  
  
"He's mine." Power Man moved forward, intent on twisting Ranma into a swan. He had been practicing origami, and thought he was pretty good at it, but wanted the additional practice to hone his skills. He lunged at the youth, but found his hands managed to clutch nothing but air.   
  
Ranma somersaulted over the big man, easily dodging the lunge. While spinning directly overhead, he unleashed a punch that connected with the top of the cranium of his more powerful opponent. Power Man clutched his head from the pain. Even Daredevil hadn't struck that hard.  
  
As Ranma came out of his aerial roll, he landed on his feet and before Elektra, who had anticipated his trajectory and already held her sais in hand. She stabbed at him three times, constantly missing by only the slightest of margins. After the third slash, a foot met her jaw, knocking her off her feet and losing her hold on one of her weapons.   
  
Not even waiting for her to land, Ranma went to the air again to deliver a leap kick to the idiot in the musketeer costume. This was all too easy, he thought to himself. It was exactly like he had told his father; he didn't need some stupid costume and shield to defeat super villains. He was Ranma Saotome, not Captain Japan. He was a master of the School of Anything Goes martial arts and would prove it by defeating this pack of losers and shipping them off to the police.  
  
He lined the heel of his foot up with the forehead of the Swordsman. Ranma anticipated this one being the easiest of the lot. People that used weapons tended to rely upon them too much, and it was only a sword. Even as the villain lined the point of the blade in Ranma's direction, he was already figuring out how to evade the stab thrust and attack on the follow-through.   
  
And just as quickly all thoughts were driven from Ranma's mind when a yellow bolt of energy leaped forth from the hilt of the blade. Caught completely off-guard by the nature of the attack, Ranma was struck fully in the chest. Pain erupted from his body as the power from the blast diverted his course in mid-air and drove him backward.   
  
Ranma had fallen no more than halfway back to the ground when he felt someone grab his ankle. The next thing he knew there was a yellow blur, and then he found himself hurled through the air so quickly that everything became a shifting field of various colors, far too fast for his eye to follow. The disturbing flight only stopped when the grip on his ankle released and his toss through the air ended with his collision head-first into a wall.   
  
Equilibrium helplessly destabilized, Ranma tried to get both his wind back and return to his feet. He accomplished neither as a red boot struck him fully in the chest, jaw, and back. The only thing that stopped the beating was a booming voice which declared, "My turn."  
  
Air replaced concrete as Ranma felt himself hoisted up, suspended like a small child in the hands of a giant. He recognized Power Man's mask as the big man brought him face-to-face. The only details Ranma could make out around the man's mask were the piercing gaze through the eyeholes and the cut out portion of the mouth, which was curled into a sneer. Neither seemed to bode well for the youth.  
  
Ranma fought back with the only skill still left to him. "You're still slow."   
  
A fist met the top of his head, one with five times he force he mustered when doing the same thing to the large man. "And you're unconscious." He tossed Ranma's limp body aside.   
  
"We're out of here," Whizzer declared as he headed towards an exit that would take them to one of the airstrips.  
  
"No plane will take us out of here. The airport has been sealed thanks to your cover being blown," Elektra pointed out.   
  
"We have a private plane, and I can be very persuasive." Power Man slammed his hand into his fist. All present could almost feel the room shake.  
  
"I suppose you can be," Elektra admitted. Stupid, but very strong. She would have to be careful among this nest of vipers. Of course, it did not hurt that she was the most poisonous of them all.  
  
The quartet departed the terminal and headed to one of the planes that awaited them. No one that remained tried to get in their way.  
  
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Red warning lights flashed in her helmet as the Iron Rose's sensors spotted a familiar hammer-wielding goddess flying in the same direction she was. Using her jets, the armored warrior maneuvered closer to Thor. The blonde gave a warded salute as the two flew through the air. The Iron Rose returned the gesture, remembering the somewhat tempestuous meeting they had when confronting that bestial Hulk so many weeks ago.  
  
"What brings you here?" the Iron Rose asked, using her loudspeakers.  
  
"I did see upon the television scenes of carnage delivered by those who would seek to do others harm. I took it upon mineself to alleviate the fears of the masses and defeat these perpetrators of injustice and give them unto the authorities. And thy presence?"  
  
"Same reason. Shall we team up?"  
  
"The Goddess of Thunder requires no assistance, even from one such as thyself, armored warrior," Thor scoffed. "But I will not force thee to leave, as thy conscience has deemed that thou should be here to render what aid thou might. Simply stay out of mine way and all shall be well."  
  
"Oh, I'm certain it will," the Iron Rose replied coldly. Who did this pompous gaijin think she was in ordering someone as high born and powerful as Kodachi Kunou around as though she was some mere school crossing guard? Well, the Iron Rose would show this cocky goddess what true power was when they confronted the villains that had assaulted the airport. She would defeat them so quickly that Thor would turn as green as the Hulk in envy.   
  
The duo flew above the airport, witnessing the scene of chaos. Dozens of police vehicles were spread out in the front of the main terminal. From above it seemed they were primarily divided into two groups. Some trying to control the increasingly growing crowd of press and curious onlookers, while the rest steeled themselves for the assault on the building.   
  
Both Thor and the Iron Rose landed among the group preparing to enter the terminal. The goddess' touchdown was as gentle as a feather, while the boot jets of the armored warrior kicked up a cloud of dust that momentarily obscured her from view. Once the dust settled, the pair addressed the crowd.  
  
"What transpires here?" Thor inquired of the woman who appeared to be in charge.   
  
Kaori shot the goddess an irritated glare. "Great, more of you guys. Well, it doesn't appear the first couple of you vigilantes did much good. We had a report from the tower that an unauthorized plane took off on its own. Someone said they thought they saw the bad guys who were tearing up the place board it, and they brought friends. Just be happy they weren't your buddies, or I'd be hauling you off right now."  
  
"First couple of us?" Thor asked.  
  
"Yes. They were dressed like clowns, like you, I mean. They went in before you. Some archer and that Dirtdevil guy."  
  
Thor's brows narrowed at the implications, and she leveled a scowl at the officer, leaving no doubt as to her opinion of them. "I have no such allies, and I assure thee they were not mine companions. I have no peers here on Midgard."  
  
"You got that right." Ryo said, staring at her chest. Since his brother had said all that needed to be said, Kyo simply drooled in agreement.  
  
Kaori seethed at the twins' attitude, but turned her anger to the goddess before her. "What about that one?" She pointed at Thor's flying companion.  
  
"This one is called the Iron Rose, bodyguard to the head of Kunou Industries," Iron Rose answered as her instruments began to monitor the situation. She thought she had managed to get a lock on the transponder signal coming from the plane that had illegally taken off from the airport. She couldn't follow it; her boot jets weren't built for long distance and the armor was too heavy for her to fly that fast. But the information might be useful later.  
  
"Our meeting is by coincidence, I assure you." Thor said. "So, might there be more base villains still within the confines of yon building?"  
  
"Possibly. We were just about to go in-"  
  
"Thou need not worry. The Goddess of Thunder shall take care of matters. Merely keep the throngs back and out of harm's way while I deal with things." Thor turned on her heel and headed to the terminal, determination in every step. The Iron Rose followed in her wake, paying close attention to her helmet's sensors and keeping a lookout for trouble.  
  
"Wait! That's a restricted zone!"  
  
"Restricted to others. Thor treads where others fear to follow."  
  
Kaori's fury doubled. She knew from the beginning it was a futile warning that was too late to prevent the goddess from barging in anyway, which made her seethe all the more. She was rapidly coming to hate super beings of any kind. Things were a lot more peaceful and safer without them running around. Something should be done about them, both the good and the bad ones since there was so little difference between them. They had no respect for the law or authorities, acting like a bunch of American cowboys and causing untold havoc and damage. All of them needed to be put out of commission so the police could do their job once again.   
  
She wondered if she should contact her 'Uncle' Peter in America about the problem. During one of his visits, her father's old friend had once mentioned the difficulties with heroes in the United States and what measures he felt should be taken to control them. From what she had gleaned, his attitude concerning them was very similar to her own. He was an influential man in his government. Perhaps it was a matter worth looking into.  
  
xxxxxxxxx  
  
"We're here." The cab driver pulled to a stop well outside the ring of police cars. "That'll be an extra five thousand yen, since you made me enter a miniature demilitarized zone as fast as I could."  
  
"Thanks." Tofu paid the man and exited the vehicle. The moment he stepped out, the driver floored it and left. If Tofu had any sense, or the ability to say no, he would have done the same.  
  
"What do we do now?" he asked his front jacket pocket.  
  
Kasumi emerged and considered the situation. "Shrink down. I'll carry you with me, and we'll see if we can get the drop on the bad guys. No sense in us announcing our presence beforehand, right?"  
  
Tofu admitted it made sense. Apparently Kasumi had given some thought to this super hero thing. Sighing, he looked for a place to take off his outer clothing and shrink down, mindful of where he would be storing the garments so they might be recovered later.  
  
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The contrasting symbols of ancient magic and advanced technology traveled side-by-side as Thor and Iron Rose walked through the length of the terminal. Everywhere they went there were signs of a tremendous struggle that had progressed throughout a considerable portion of the building. Shattered lights, overturned baggage carriers, support columns pulverized into dust. Billions of yen in damage had been inflicted upon the structure, and only unconscious law enforcement personnel were to show for it.  
  
The duo had made it nearly three quarters of the way through the building when the Iron Rose's infrared scan showed a heat signature. "There!" She pointed for Thor's benefit, showing where the body of Daredevil lay limply upon the ground. "I think that's the Dust Demon person the officer mentioned.   
  
Thor thought she saw a movement out of the corner of her eye. She was uncertain, but she could have sworn it was a large panda carrying a boy about Ranma's age out of sight. But it had only been a fleeting glimpse, and she was uncertain if she saw anything. Still, the unusual sight made it a matter worth investigating. The goddess prepared to head off in that direction when Iron Rose interrupted her thought process by saying, "And there's the archer. It appears they failed to stop those super villains."  
  
Thor turned to see what Iron Rose was referring to. Her eyes widened as they fell upon a familiar figure. "Hawkeye!" Thoughts of panda kidnappers forgotten, the goddess rushed over to the where the archer lay. As she drew closer, she recognized the handsome man she had met a short while ago when they had been forced to deal with the combined might of the Mask Gang, Ulos, and that arrogant watered-down godling, Raiden.   
  
Thor cradled the fallen hero in her massive arms. "What base villains have the audacity to strike thee down, my comrade? If thou hast been mortally wounded, I swear upon the All-Father's name that I shall avenge thee!"  
  
Iron Rose looked on in surprise. "The two of you are close?"  
  
The question shocked the goddess out of her reverie and made her take a step back and realize what she had done. She dropped Hawkeye as though the archer was a hot potato. One that hit headfirst to the ground. "I am not a pervert! We barely know one another. I was just concerned that one so noble was struck down by treachery of some sort."  
  
"I see." Iron Rose nodded, glad her faceplate hid her amusement.  
  
Despite landing on her head, the fall served to jar Hawkeye awake. It took her a moment to dazedly revive and realize who now surrounded her. Thor she recognized, but the armored warrior was new. As the archer shook her head clear of the remaining haze around it, she noticed the look of concern and, was it affection the large woman seemed to be directing to her?  
  
It almost certainly was. It seemed when it came to romance, this was the way Hawkeye's luck ran of late. Turning on the 'masculine charm,' she tried to unleash her best cocky swagger, which was coming out as weak as she felt, and said, "No need to worry there. I'm one hero who knows how to take care of himself. I had things under control until that sword-wielding jackass showed up and distracted me. Then I got double teamed, and they still needed a healthy dose of luck to beat me. Next time, I'll be the one mopping the floor up with their faces and sticking that sword where the sun don't shine."  
  
"And with the Goddess of Thunder at thy side, victory is assured." An involuntary smile spread across Thor's lips as she placed her hand across Hawkeye's shoulders in a somewhat more than friendly manner. In some ways, the self-assured, and somewhat cocky, attitude the archer demonstrated reminded her of her old fighting partner and drinking companion, Fandral the Dashing, of the Warriors Three. Now there was a handsome man who knew how to party as well as seduce. His smile alone had lured dozens of ladies of Asgard into his bed. Thor remembered being a touch on the jealous side about the ease with which his friend scored with members of the opposite sex. But the scion of the Realm Eternal had her own ways of seducing women, from impressive feats of strength to her own royal lineage, many would...  
  
Seducing women?  
  
"I'm not a pervert," Thor said determinedly, removing her arm from Hawkeye's shoulder.   
  
"Oh, I didn't think you were," Hawkeye said, all the while being secretly relieved that Thor seemed to be backing off. There was definitely something overwhelming about the goddess. Despite her obvious womanly build and attractive foreign features, there was some facet of her nature that felt aggressively masculine, a powerful presence which even Hawkeye failed to achieve. It made for some curious reactions in Ukyou's own female body to have it respond in such a way around another woman.  
  
The heroes backed away from one another, one in confusion and the other in caution.  
  
Iron Rose took note of their mutual behavior. This Hawkeye person was somewhat attractive in a bishonen way, though he was a bit slender for Kodachi's taste. She could understand the interest the goddess seemed to have for the archer. It reminded the Iron Rose of her own unattached state, something that would have to change at the first opportunity she had. However, there were other matters that had to be dealt with first.   
  
She went over and examined the unconscious Daredevil. A woozy sigh escaped his lips as he slowly regained consciousness.  
  
"Where are they?" he moaned.   
  
"Most likely already departed." Now that the Iron Rose was able to view the crimson-clad adventurer more closely, she wondered what his build was like under his voluminous robes. That errant thought struck her as to just how lonely she was. "Are you all right?"  
  
Daredevil jumped up to his feet and worked his muscles around. "My head's ringing a bit, but it's nothing I can't deal with." He turned to go. "I need to track those four down and bring them to justice. They're a menace to everyone."  
  
"How wilt thou follow? They flew off, and thou dost not appear to be the type that can fly the skies the way the Goddess of Thunder can," Thor informed him as she considered how she might track the villains down as well.  
  
"I don't know, but I have to find them." Daredevil silently raged against what had happened. The first serious threat he had come across, and he had been beaten handily. He had the situation under control until that woman showed. It was only thanks to her intervention that he lost. He had to defeat either her or that giant lump of muscle, otherwise he could never truly regard himself as a super hero, not if he failed so quickly to deal with a real threat.  
  
"I might have a way of following them," Iron Rose told the others. "I believe I managed to get their transponder code. With the resources of my employer at my disposal, I believe I can track them down so long as they remain in this hemisphere."  
  
That caught the interest of the others. Since no one had any better ideas, the trio clustered around the armored girl and began discussing about their next course of action.  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
While the heroes' discussion was going on, another was beginning. Genma the 'Wonder Panda,' had barely been able to snatch Ranma away from the scene of carnage before they had been spotted. For a moment he thought Thor had spied them, but either he was wrong or she had simply not felt inclined to follow. In either case it gave the panda a chance to communicate with his son.   
  
He slapped Ranma in a nerve cluster in his back. The sharp bite of pain brought Ranma back to wakefulness.   
  
As he came around, Ranma gave a groggy, "What's going on, Pop?"   
  
Genma held up a sign. *You got your head handed to you by those guys.*  
  
Slowly, bits and pieces of the fight came back to Ranma. Once the pieces all fell together, the picture they made created a tight feeling of anger that formed in the pit of Ranma's stomach. His father was absolutely correct. He had been defeated like a pitiful weakling. The quartet had beaten him in under a minute, none of them breaking a sweat in the process. True, mostly it was because that idiot musketeer's sword was able to shoot some kind of power beam, but still Ranma should have been able to avoid it. He had gotten cocky, and paid the appropriate price. To add to the humiliation, it had happened after his big speech on not needing the shield and outfit to play the hero.   
  
His fist tightened into a ball. His fingers dug tight into his palm, turning it white with pressure and nearly breaking the skin and drawing blood. Fine, he had lost once. There was no way he was going to let it happen again. No way at all. He would get revenge, no matter what the cost.   
  
Knowing his son's pride and sensing (and silently hoping for) what was to come, Genma signed, *Those others that were beaten up seem to be planning to track them down and stop them too. They've been joined by those two other people that helped you against those scary guys with the masks. If you asked, I'm sure they would welcome some further assistance. I don't know as they'd be willing to let someone that looks so normal to go along, though.*  
  
"You're being transparent, Pop, but you're also right. Give me that damn costume. I'll play the icon of super heroism, at least long enough to kick those four guys' butts. No matter how far they ran, it ain't going to be far enough to escape me."  
  
*That's my boy.* Genma handed Ranma the shield and outfit, relieved to allow Captain Japan to save the day once again.  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
"...So you're saying this quinjet thing has the capabilities to go anywhere in the world within a couple of hours?" Hawkeye asked.  
  
"Indeed. It is experimental, but given the genius of my employer, I have no doubts whatsoever that it'll work. If those we seek were on that private jet, we should be able to track them down no matter where they hide. I'll just have to make a few adjustments to its tracking system in order to follow them." The Iron Rose smirked under her helmet. She was the only one who could help them discover the villains' location. As powerful as the hammer wielding goddess was, and as able as the two others might be, she was the one who was in charge and calling the shots. That was as it should be, for it was blatantly obvious she was the most brilliant, tactically sound, and noblest person present. With her in charge, the villains would be brought to justice in a matter of hours.  
  
"So we should travel to thine headquarters?" Thor asked.  
  
"That won't be necessary. I can summon it here with my armor. The tools I need to modify the equipment will be on board."  
  
Something about her boasting caught Hawkeye's attention. "Wait a minute. I thought you said your employer was the one who made the thing. How do you know how to modify it?"  
  
Under her helmet, Kodachi grimaced. Having a secret identity took some getting used to. Still, it was a mistake that was easily rectified. "I have no small ability in the field of electronics. Whereas I am nowhere near as brilliant as the beautiful genius, Miss Kodachi Kunou, I have capabilities that far surpass the average layman. Modifying the sensor systems aboard the quinjet will be simplicity itself for one of my numerous talents. Ohohohohoho!"  
  
The others cringed at the laughter. Protests at her ear splitting merriment were derailed as a new voice entered the discussion.   
  
"Mind if I tag along? The name's Captain Japan, and I have a personal score to settle with those jerks too."  
  
The quartet turned to examine the newcomer. Captain Japan stood before them, hands on his hips and shield slung on his arm in an attempt to look intimidating and impress the four before him.   
  
On Daredevil's part, there was something about the newcomer that rubbed him wrong. He could practically feel the ego radiating off the hero. "I think we have the situation well in hand, pal. The four of us can handle things, so there's no need for you to-"  
  
"He's coming along!" three voices said as one.   
  
The words had escaped Thor's mouth before she realized it, though she felt no regrets and meant every word. This Captain fellow appeared to be a prime specimen of manhood with an impressive physique that bulged in all the right places and a height that allowed him to reach a level almost to her forehead, a rarity among the Japanese. His bearing displayed a combination of confidence and power, and she found herself being instantly attracted to this newcomer, even if for some odd reason his outfit and shield bore an uncanny resemblance to that Bucky harlot.   
  
"And I'm not being perverted," she assured herself.  
  
"You seem to be saying that a lot lately," Hawkeye commented. She too found herself smitten by the man's obvious charms. Of course, with her luck he might turn out to be a total jackass, but given the hunk of manhood in question, she was certainly willing to take the chance if it meant getting to know him better.   
  
For her part, the Iron Rose remained silent after her proclamation. She was taken instantly by what was obviously her intended soul mate. That he was delivered to her like a gift from the gods was a clear sign they were destined for one another. At last the rose of iron she had become would be allowed to blossom in the hands of a man, as it was always meant to be. She tittered under her armor.  
  
Resentment rose in Daredevil. He could tell from the sounds of their voices that all three were interested in the Captain for reasons other than practicality. Hawkeye's interest surprised him most of all. The blind youth made a mental note never to change clothes in the archer's presence. Still, that he was so casually ignored in favor of what his radar sense detected as little more than a walking side of testosterone and muscle irked him to no end. He vowed to keep a close 'watch' on this Captain Japan. Daredevil knew he was twice the man the egotist was, and would be eager to prove it at every opportunity.  
  
Hackles were raised up and down the entirety of Captain Japan's spine. He felt uneasy at the attention suddenly directed his way and wondered if traveling with this quartet was the best idea after all. However, he needed their equipment and skills to track down the villains and pursue them. He had already made an offer that was accepted and would never back out now for fear of appearing cowardly. Still, for some odd reason he wondered if even with all the help they could give him, if hanging around them would end up being the greater of two evils.  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
[Author's notes:]  
  
It has come to my attention that some people have expressed justifiable concern over some of the behavioral differences between some of the more cameo type appearances of some of the other anime characters (Such as the YAU ladies in this) and the differences they display here from their canon counterparts. Part of it is that yes, I could simply fill such roles with original characters, however I want to try and maintain a balance between the super hero and the anime flavors to it. This is a fusion, so there are differences in some of the background of the characters. Just look at the differences in some of the primary members here, like Ranma and Ukyou. Some of the appearances of the other characters will be instrumental to the storyline. Koari as you can tell here, and the Goddesses from OMG! in the next story arc. Others will be less important, a la Speed Racer in chapter 3 and the like. So bear this in mind when saying, "Character X would react differently from what's here. Whereas you're probably right, I'm hoping what differences they display can be overlooked for the sake of their appearance, and I will try to keep their more canon personalities in line. Just wanted to clear that point up.  
  
Well, another chapter down. Originally I anticipated everything I had outlined in my head to take only one 120K or so chapter. Boy was I wrong. It nearly doubled in anticipated size. Looks like 'Ten Rings' will be three minimum, to possibly four chapters, but very unlikely to stretch beyond that. We'll see as things progress.   
  
Special thanks to  
Gary Ee  
Christopher Horton  
William Morse  
Brian Randall  
Kichigai  
Gary Kleppe 


	9. Ten Rings to Rule Them All Part II

Avenging chapter 9  
Ten Rings to Rule Them All II  
  
Any and all C+C is appreciated. You can contact me at  
sommer@3rdm.net  
  
All of my fics are stored at the following:  
  
Larry F's new address at:  
http://www.rakhal.com/florestica/  
  
Or R+C books at:  
http://dbsommer.rcbooks.org  
  
And also Angcobra is now storing all of my fics, at   
http://dbsommer.web1000.com/dbsommer.html   
  
  
Standard Disclaimer: Various anime characters are owned by their respective creators. The super heroes are owned by Marvel Comics Company  
  
xxxxxxxxx  
  
"Are you done yet?"  
  
"No." Idiotic bishonen playboy. The Iron Rose used the retractable cutting torch in her finger to complete a connection to the stealth system.  
  
"Art thou done yet?"  
  
"No." Oversized gaijin harlot. More relays were fused to their various systems. The prototype quinjet had only been test flown twice and even then it was over short distances. It wasn't outfitted for proper inter-continental flight yet.   
  
"Aren't you done yet?"  
  
"No!" What statement was that idiotic robe and devil mask supposed to make anyway? Was it red to hide the fact that he bled easily, or was the twit color-blind? She grit her teeth in annoyance as she rechecked the monitors in the cockpit.  
  
"Yo, Shellhead, this is taking a while."  
  
"Forgive me, Captain-sama." The Iron Rose broke off her work and returned ponderously to her feet. She gave a deep bow, formal despite the bulky armor she wore. "The modifications necessary for our impromptu flight are extensive to assure our safe arrival in these uncharted waters. I shall endeavor to hasten my work so we can set upon our foes all the quicker. There is but one more system I need to check, then we shall be off on our merry way. Fighting alongside you shall be an honor, Captain-sama. Ohohohoho!" She laughed maniacally covering her mouth with her gauntlet.  
  
Captain Japan laughed nervously in return and backed away. Suddenly, putting his life in the walking stove's hands, or armored gauntlets in her case, didn't seem like a good idea after all.  
  
"Why does he get a 'sama' while I just get a snarl from the tin can?" Daredevil mumbled to himself as he turned away from the work.  
  
Iron Rose picked up the 'tin can' reference with her audio sensors. In response, she adjusted a device on her armor's waist, bringing her magnetic projector online. She used it to send an extra nut lying near her workplace flying through the air and towards the back of Daredevil's head.  
  
At the last moment, the red-garbed adventurer effortlessly reached behind him and snatched the nut out of mid-air without turning around. "You dropped this," he calmly stated as he tossed the nut over his shoulder. The Iron Rose caught the unerringly thrown projectile out of mid-air.  
  
"Not bad," Captain Japan admitted to himself. He would have sensed the object's approach as well with his highly trained martial arts senses, but Daredevil made it seem even easier than he could have managed.  
  
With his heightened senses, Daredevil easily picked up his new comrade-in-arms words and could not have cared less. He wasn't here to impress anyone other than himself. The opinions of all involved, from cocky, shield-slinging clods, to armored hulks, to oversized self-proclaimed goddesses, meant nothing.   
  
Boredom threatened to consume him while Iron Rose fiddled around with the vehicle. Daredevil used the extra time to focus his senses on the people upon whom his life might very well depend. Only Thor really impressed him. The way the ground vibrated wherever she tread indicated Thor was far heavier than a normal human. Earlier, at the Iron Rose's request, she had lifted the quinjet up so that the armored warrior could gain easier access to the engines at an angle that she claimed would help with an adjustment to the gyroscopes on the vehicle. That display of strength probably surpassed Power Man's, and Daredevil didn't even want to think about the hammer and the weird vibes it gave off. Whatever power flowed through it set his teeth on edge when he focused on it.  
  
The one called Iron Rose remained a mystery, one he didn't care for. The armor hid the woman beneath. Nothing about her true form could be sensed, Even her voice was distorted by machinery. It was like communicating with a giant toaster instead of a person the way his senses were blocked. He decided to have as little to do with her as possible.  
  
His attention turned to Captain Japan. There was nothing unusual about him, save his physique, which was as close to human perfection as Daredevil had ever sensed. Heart rate, blood pressure, perspiration, everything was in peak condition. It was unsettling to meet someone who was in superior physical shape to Mousse, who had trained as hard as possible for the majority of his life to be the best that he could be. Of course there was more to a fight than mere physical conditioning. There was skill, as well as heart and will, which Daredevil possessed in abundance. He was secure in the knowledge he could take the arrogant super-hero in a straight fight, but that perfect physique added to the list of the Captain's qualities that the blind youth disliked. It was becoming a long list.  
  
At last, he turned his full senses to Hawkeye. Now that he focused exclusively on the archer, Daredevil began to suspect that all was not right about him. Something about the bishonen youth was odd. It was in the small details rather than in any overt manner. The way he walked, the way he talked, even how he breathed was peculiar. They didn't indicate superhuman abilities like Thor, but something else altogether. He trained the totality of his senses to the archer.  
  
Somehow, Hawkeye seemed to pick up on his interest and approached. That took Daredevil aback; he had wanted to examine him surreptitiously. He sensed Hawkeye was going to speak, and concentrated on the words and the reaction the archer's body gave.  
  
Hawkeye said, "Is something wrong? I noticed you staring at me pretty intently."  
  
Daredevil cursed his tendency to actually face people when he focused on them. It had been necessary to learn to put people at ease by looking at them when communicating. Others didn't like it when the person speaking to them appeared to have their attention elsewhere, even if they knew they were talking with a blind man. He always did it out of habit now, and unfortunately Hawkeye had noticed and was questioning him.  
  
"Not really. I was just thinking of things," Daredevil said quickly.  
  
That seemed to assuage the archer. "Well, since we got a minute, I thought you might want to trade notes on super-heroing and stuff."  
  
Daredevil tensed up at the suggestion and what followed. He went no further than feeling Hawkeye's heart rate leap slightly at the conversation and the archer's voice became slightly raspy. The blind youth recognized this first couple of signs and tuned out the rest. He wished he had paid less attention to Hawkeye. Now the obviously gay archer misinterpreted Daredevil's interest as being sexual instead of professional. Oh, on the surface that was what Hawkeye contended, but Daredevil could feel the archer's body betraying him by becoming aroused and knew better.   
  
It was best to end it quickly, before Hawkeye got any ideas. "Sorry, I have some serious planning to do before we run into our playmates again."  
  
"We can come up with an attack plan together," Hawkeye said hopefully.  
  
Uncomfortable beyond all measure, Daredevil backed away. "No, it's all right. I'm sure you'd rather make plans with the Captain over there." And Daredevil didn't want to know what any of those plans were. He deliberately turned his sense away from Hawkeye in order to dwell on anything other than homosexual super-heroes.  
  
Hawkeye's disappointment at Daredevil's standoffish behavior was quickly defused by Thor. She moved closer to the archer and placed an arm around her shoulders. "Thy suggestion has merit. Let us make plans to war on those villains who harmed thy fair personage."  
  
Hawkeye darted out from under the grasping shoulder. Thor was getting a little too friendly again. It was the sort of reaction she would have preferred from Daredevil or that hunky Captain, but instead, thanks to her choice of camouflage, she was once again fending off the advances of a woman. "Sure we can, but let's not get too close. I like to use... ah, lots of wide hand motions when describing things and wouldn't want to smack you."  
  
"Ah, right," Thor said hesitantly. "Describe again these villains abilities. From the sounds of things, methinks it would be best if I strove against this Power Man."  
  
As the two began to come up with a battle strategy, Captain Japan held back, watching Hawkeye intently. This was bizarre, almost surreal, in a way. It made him wonder what kind of world it was where two people that were great shots with arrows had the same nickname. The first time he heard the archer called "Hawkeye" by Thor, he nearly fell over in shock. His first instinct was to run over and hug the purple-garbed adventurer, but then he recovered his senses. Of course it was only natural that his first instinct would be to assume Hawkeye was his best childhood buddy that had taken on the guise of a super hero. But then common sense returned and the Captain nearly kicked himself for causing a spectacle by hugging another guy. The others would think he was gay. And it was silly, really, the idea that this Hawkeye could be the same person from Ranma's own past.  
  
After all, Ukyou had been a girl, and it was obvious Hawkeye was a guy, especially with how he was reacting to the obvious advances of Thor. The only way the archer could have been good ol' Ucchan was if she had not only decided to become a super hero, like Ranma, but had also traveled to Jusenkyou and just happened to fall into the spring of drowned guy. Now that was stretching coincidence impossibly far.  
  
Still, maybe he would find some hot water and 'accidentally' spill it on Hawkeye, just in case. It never paid to take chances.  
  
"Finished!" Iron Rose declared as she reattached the last plate to the exterior controls. "Everyone get on board. I've already got the tracking information logged into the control system. It will take us on the most direct course that their plane traveled."  
  
Eagerly, all five heroes boarded the high-tech transport. The last one to board was Daredevil. Just as he was about to enter, he paused and tried tuning his senses to the bottom of the vehicle.  
  
"What is it?" Captain Japan, who had been right in front of Daredevil, asked.  
  
The roar and heat from the quinjet's engines started up, drowning out Daredevil's ability to sort through the stimulus around him. He shook his head and paused on the steps leading inside the vehicle. "For a second, I thought I heard something near the landing gear. It was about the size of an insect."  
  
"So what?" Captain Japan asked.  
  
Daredevil was about to explain, but changed his mind and entered without another word. He had been beaten soundly, was trying hard not to pay attention to Hawkeye, and the engines had distracted him. It was small wonder he was imagining things. After all, the idea that a person could be the size of a wasp was absurd.  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Concealed within the compartment for the landing gear, the Wasp flew into an area that appeared to be safe, or at least where nothing would crush her and her unconscious companion. Her wait was over quickly when the quinjet rose vertically and the landing gear went up and into the craft. A moment later, the main engines provided forward thrust and the jet took off. For a moment, the Wasp was afraid they would not make it in time, but one last burst of speed enabled her to hide in the landing gear without any of the other heroes noticing her presence.  
  
She looked down at the man she had carried with her. It was peculiar that when Tofu shrank down to her size, he became incoherent and the goggles on his mask fogged over. It was probably some side-effect from the shrinking gas. At any time she could use one of the enlarging gas canisters on his belt to return him to normal size, and hopefully more coherent, but she thought better of it. Coming up with a different plan, she flew up with Giant Man in a fireman's carry cross her shoulders, and headed for the quinjet.  
  
She wondered if she was doing the right thing. Being a superhero had suddenly become more difficult than she had originally thought. Upon arriving at the scene, she and Giant Man had discovered the villains had already departed. At first she was depressed, but then she overheard the heroes discuss tracking the villains down. The excitement of fighting for justice filled her once again, and she vowed to go along to help. But Giant Man had been knocked senseless by his gas and kept calling Kasumi by her proper name rather than 'Wasp.' There was no way she was sharing her real identity with a group of strangers. Also having an incoherent partner was no way to approach the group and offer to join. Likewise, she was uncertain they would accept her and Giant Man. They had no reputation, like most of those assembled, and perhaps they would be cynical about her size, thinking her a liability in a fight.   
  
Rather than taking the chance of being rejected, she decided to stowaway. Once they arrived at where the villains were located, she and Giant Man could appear out of the blue and save the day. Then the group would see them in combat first hand and have to accept them.   
  
Course set, Wasp knocked out the still-incoherent Giant Man with a light zap, then carried him into the landing gear. Perhaps flying inside the passenger area of the quinjet would have been safer, but she didn't want to chance getting caught and thrown off the vehicle, ending her adventure before it had begun.   
  
Now they were comfortably ensconced in the landing gear. She could hear the wind howling outside, but still felt safe with all of the armor between her and the skies above. The pitch blackness was a problem, but one she could live with. She kept a close hand on her partner as she let the slow hum of the vehicle lull her into a relaxed state, eventually falling asleep shortly after the quinjet took off despite her excitement at what was to come.  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
The gentle hum from the jet engines rumbled throughout the plane. The vibrations flowed through the entire aircraft, and she could feel them all the way through her seat. Her eyes were closed, and she tried to refocus her center. The combat had not been extraordinarily difficult, but despite the relative ease with which matters had been resolved, she felt inexplicably out of sorts. With the time she had before their arrival in the mountains of China, she sought to re-center herself using some of the meditation techniques her mentor, Matsuo Tsurayaba, had taught her.  
  
But she could not find the concentration necessary to use the technique. The reason for that was very simple. It was the eyes, those merciless orbs that seemed to bore into her mind. Even with her own lids closed, she could still feel them penetrating her and burning her with their unrelenting fires from within.  
  
Her eyes whipped open. "Would you quit staring at my breasts?!"  
  
Both Power Man and Mint, who now refused to be called 'Whizzer', continued staring.   
  
Mint said, "I can't help it. They're so... there."  
  
"Are they as soft as they look?" Power Man leaned forward to try to touch them again.  
  
In response, Elektra darted out of the way of the way and moved forward so she was next Power Man. She then brought both of her palms hard across his ears. The result was a bellow of pain from him as the seeking hand returned to cover the abused ears.   
  
"I'm satisfied with just staring at them," Mint assured her, pushing away the idea that he might be able to get a quick feel with his super speed. She would probably notice it, and in the closed confines of the jet, he would have difficulty making use of his super powers. There was no way he could outrun her, and with her reflexes she might have been fast enough to do something that involved a great deal of pain to him.  
  
"What fools you foreigners be," Swordsman said dramatically. "To leer at such a bastion of beauty shows how crude and barbarous your nature is. Truly you are not worthy to be in the presence of such a flower of femininity."  
  
"But you were staring too," Mint said.   
  
"I was simply admiring the design of her garments."  
  
"Do you usually drool when you do that?"  
  
Swordsman stood up and drew his weapon from its sheath. He pointed it in Mint's direction. "You sir, are a cad."  
  
"No, I'm a Musk. It says so right on my passport." Mint pulled it out and showed him.  
  
Before he could reply, Swordsman discovered a sharp metal object pointed under his chin. There was just enough pressure to push the skin inward without actually breaking it.  
  
Keeping the sai pressed against his jaw, Elektra hissed, "As amusing as it would be to watch you punch a hole in the side of this plane and the three of you get sucked out at four thousand feet, I, unfortunately, would end up being ejected as well. Since I have no intention of dying today, I suggest you put that sword back where you found it, or they are going to have to reupholster the seats since I doubt they'll be able to wash out that many bloodstains."  
  
Swordsman sheathed his weapon. "I merely wished to express my opinion. Harming my new comrade and teammate was the furthest thing from my mind."  
  
Elektra sat back in her seat, deliberately keeping the sai out and idly pointing it in the others' direction. If she had to put up with these three morons for another hour, she might draw the Swordsman's blade and blast a hole in the side of the plane herself.  
  
Showing a remarkable resilience, or a remarkable ability to delude himself, by not being intimidated in the slightest by the assassin's display, Swordsman began talking to her yet again. "I feel compelled to point out that Elektra is an unusual name for someone not of Grecian decent. Is it your real name, or just a working moniker, and if so what should I call you, oh sweet beauty, when we are on our date?"  
  
"You can call me insane if you think for one moment I'd date with you."   
  
Mint said, "Insane's a pretty unusual name too. Is it because you're psychotic or something?"  
  
"I didn't mean it was my actual name!" Elektra snarled. Taking a moment to compose herself, she said, "Look, if I answer your questions, will you leave me alone, or at least stop looking at my breasts?"  
  
Mint said, "Probably not, but there is a minuscule chance I will if I find the story really interesting or it puts me to sleep."  
  
"I would never engage in such deplorable behavior in the first place," Swordsman assured her.  
  
"Did she say something about spot hooking a chest?" Power Man asked Mint; the ringing in his ears still made it impossible to hear anything outside of a bell clearly.  
  
"No. She said she wants us to stop looking at her chest."  
  
"Hop skipping a mess?"  
  
"Yes, that's exactly what I said." Elektra nodded her head to make sure the big man wouldn't misunderstand her agreement as something else and continue making inane misinterpretations.   
  
"So, where did you get the name?" Swordsman continued.  
  
Reluctantly, Elektra decided it would probably be best to tell them the story. Once they knew the truth, it might serve to silence them, or at least leave her alone for the rest of the journey. "It is the name I selected upon my ascension to the rank of Assassin Prime. It was chosen as a way of honoring the best friend I ever had, may her soul rest in peace."  
  
Swordsman removed his hat and placed it over his heart. "It is such sweet sorrow when the ones we care for fall before their time. My heart goes out to you in your pain. If I may be so bold, what ill wind claimed her life?"  
  
"I ran my sai through her chest."  
  
"I... see," Swordsman said, actually shocked at the admission.  
  
Mint said, "I take it you don't have many friends."  
  
"No. None, really." It was a casual admission. She could have been commenting on the weather for all of the emotion in her voice.  
  
Having collected himself, Swordsman pressed on. "And what, pray tell, was the cause of this terminal falling out? Did you engage in some blood feud over the attentions of some dashing, sophisticated man like myself?"   
  
Seeing Mint and Power Man were also eager to listen, Elektra found herself surprised that they would press on. Either they were more stolid or more stupid than she had originally suspected. She knew which she would have bet upon.   
  
"The Hand set us up to kill one another. I was with the organization since... since I was very young. Elektra Natchios came along many years later, a reject from our accursed rivals, the Chaste. Our superiors sensed as much potential in her as they did me, so we were trained together. We became fast friends, especially due to the mutual trauma of our pasts. The man who served as our mentor encouraged out friendship. Despite an age difference, Elektra and I did everything together and soon we became inseparable. We were happier in each other's presence than at any other time in our lives.  
  
"After a year of this, there was a surprise. I was informed I had advanced far enough that I only needed to pass one last test to graduate to the rank of Assassin Prime. It was unexpected, since no one as young as myself had ever been offered the opportunity to attain that high rank. I had assumed it would be another two to three years before that day would come, but my teacher assured me I was as ready as I could be. After training me for a full decade, he would be the one to know.  
  
"The test was a battle to the death, the survivor graduating, the loser feeding the rats in the sewers. I knew this day would come and felt confident I would win. I was led to the combat pit right after the announcement. I admit, I was surprised to discover Elektra was already in the pit and prepared for the test. She appeared just as astonished it was me that had been chosen as her opponent. But being what we were, we calmed ourselves just as quickly and prepared to fight.  
  
"It was not a particularly long battle; assassins are taught to kill quickly, and we were two of the best. The difference came in a mutual forward thrust. She hesitated for a split second. I did not. She only claimed the lower half of my ear." Elektra pulled aside some of her dark locks to show that part of her right ear was missing. "I claimed her heart. It was a perfect blow."   
  
For the first time since the start of the story, the trio of men appeared chilled. There had been no emotion whatsoever in her voice. What she had stated was a pure analysis of the fight and carried nothing else. No regrets. No hesitation. No doubts.  
  
The Swordsman's voice was heavy with shock. "How could they make you kill one another? You were friends."  
  
"That was the whole point. I later learned we were intentionally trained together and our friendship was encouraged specifically for that fight so that we understood what was really expected of us. It was the second half of the test. It was to show us that there is no greater loyalty, no greater thing, than the Hand. All that I am, all that I may ever treasure or possess, is theirs. And when they tell me I must sacrifice the things I cherish, if for no other reason than their whim, I will do so without hesitation. My friendships, my lovers, even my life, all belong to them. That is reality. I am not an individual thing, like a finger. I am part of something greater. I am one of the Hand from now until the life has left my body and nothing but ashes remain."  
  
"Oh," was all Swordsman could manage to say. Even Power Man and Mint were struck silent. All three went to looking pointedly out the windows of the plane, silence reigning.   
  
Satisfied they would give her some measure of peace until they landed within the next half hour, Elektra considered what she had not told them. It was a little thing, hardly important, or at least that was what it should have been. Yet the fact had stayed with her. It was a private thing she had noticed right after the fight, and she took an odd sort of comfort in it.  
  
The blood was still dripping from her sai when Matsuo informed her that she had been reborn for the second time and earned the right to have a new name. Her first rebirth had occurred when the Hand had taken her in after gaining her from the gang of slavers that had initially captured her when she had arrived in Japan. The gang had operated in the area without the Hand's consent and had paid the ultimate price for their defiance. Rather than dispatching a child who had witnessed the Hand in action, as would have normally been the case, the commander of the death squad had seen some hidden potential in her and claimed the right to test her for indoctrination. She had survived the initial test, confirming Matsuo's suspicions. Her previous name was taken from her, her past dead in their eyes as well as her own. She was reborn merely as 'Student,' and Matsuo her sensei. He personally trained her in all the skills she would need to serve the Hand. From hand-to-hand combat, to weapons, to stealth, and even the more carnal arts she might be required to employ to get close to her targets, he taught her everything. And she learned well, for there was nothing else in her life but service to the Hand.  
  
And in that pit, when the only friend she had in ten years lay dead at her own 'hand', Student looked up to Matsuo and informed him that from that day forward she would be known as Elektra in honor of the fallen warrior. Upon that declaration, the almost inscrutable Matsuo Tsurayaba, one of the most lethal and dangerous members of the Hand, allowed a flare of anger to enter his eyes. It was a subtle thing. Had she not spent over half her life in his presence, she would not have recognized the brief flash for what it was. The look disappeared as quickly at it came, but it was too late. She had witnessed the brief loss of control.   
  
And it had made her happy.  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Things were not happening the way Hawkeye had hoped they would.  
  
While it was true that the quinjet flew fast, far faster than any commercial jet liner, and that they had taken off in pursuit of their long departed assailants, this was not the happy-go-lucky group she had hoped it would be as the quintet of heroes had agreed to join forces and bring those super-villains to justice.   
  
Her head still ached from the pounding she had received at the Whizzer's hands. It was probably a minor concussion, which she had suffered on a number of occasions during her training and early days as a super hero, but this one was lingering longer than it should have. She hoped it would fade by the time she encountered the speedster and his cohorts again. She hated to think what would happen going up against them, even with the Iron Rose, Thor, and Captain Japan at her side this time.   
  
To frustrate her further, her number of arrows was slightly depleted, and there was no way to replace the shafts she had used. The Iron Rose's quinjet might have had many elaborate devices, but a supply of arrows lying around was not one of them. Still, she should have enough to finish off the urine-colored jerk, and help her comrades if they needed it.   
  
And then there were the passengers themselves. Iron Rose was flying the vehicle, which was as expected, but for some odd reason she seemed insistent Captain Japan remain near the cockpit with her. Curiously, Hawkeye found she didn't care for that and decided to stay close by. At the moment she was maintaining a position to the Captain's right. It was a difficult location to maintain, considering the number of times Thor seemed to pop up between the two and rubbed shoulders with both of them. It made for an uncomfortable situation.  
  
The only bright side to constantly being jostled by the goddess was the close proximity to a major hunk like Captain Japan. Being near him seemed to counteract some of the odd feelings that affected her when she was near Thor. Hawkeye had never been interested in women before, even if she did crossdress, and had no intention of starting now with a six-foot, five-hundred pound (yet unquestionably feminine) gaijin who proclaimed herself a no longer worshipped deity. Still, there was something about Thor that made Hawkeye feel very peculiar. She just hoped the feeling would pass in time.  
  
Only Daredevil seemed content to remain where he was, sullen and brooding as far back in the passenger compartment as he could manage. Hawkeye was torn between trying to strike up another conversation or staying by Captain Japan's side. Ideally, she would like to talk to the Captain about being a super-hero, but there was something odd in the way he looked at her. It was almost as though he found her some sort of enigma, and she found the stare unsettling instead of flattering. That, combined with the fact she was really turned on by his physique, made talking with him awkward. She felt she couldn't risk starting a conversation without sounding like an idiot or blowing her cover. Or worse, managing to do both.   
  
However, talking with Daredevil seemed an unlikely prospect as well. The first time she had tried to start a conversation she had been rebuffed. His rude behavior irritated her and made her want to try again, just to show she could force him to open up. But again she was uncertain of how to go about it, and didn't want to risk further alienating someone that she would be fighting alongside in a little while.  
  
Unable to decide, Hawkeye turned her attention to the pilot and more important matters. "So you're certain they flew this way?"  
  
"Of course. My tracking unit has had an unbroken signal this entire time. I guarantee you this is the course they took. Even if they were flying at maximum speed, they could not escape. We should be coming upon them shortly." Iron Rose continued flying the quinjet and watching the tracking computer at the same time.  
  
The archer persisted. "We're over China, aren't we?"   
  
"For some time now. What of it?"  
  
"Isn't that a violation of their airspace?"  
  
"Again I say, what of it?"  
  
"We didn't exactly get clearance to do that. They might shoot us down since we are sort of here illegally."  
  
Iron Rose placed the back of her armored gauntlet against her helmet. "Ohohohoho! How naive of you. This aircraft is the epitome of modern technology, designed by the most brilliant genius of our era, and constructed using the best materials in the world. It has the most advanced and sophisticated computer systems ever designed by human beings, including electronic countermeasures that make us invisible to every tracking system on the planet. We could fly over Beijing all day and they wouldn't have the faintest idea we were there, unless they visually spotted us."  
  
"Well, if you say so," Hawkeye reluctantly conceded.   
  
"Are we not there yet?" Thor asked.  
  
"Don't start that again!" Iron Rose warned. "For your information, the tracking computer has indicated the aircraft ceased flying somewhere in this area."  
  
"Where are we exactly?" Captain Japan asked as he looked at the rocky mountains below.  
  
"Somewhere in the Bayan Han Range," Iron Rose said as she double-checked various maps of the region with her computer. "This is peculiar. According to this, there are no known airstrips in the area. Not even one for crop-dusters."  
  
"Maybe there's a secret military installation the Chinese don't want anyone to know about?" Hawkeye suggested.   
  
"Why would the Chinese military want to recruit Japanese super villains?" Iron Rose asked back.  
  
"I don't know," Hawkeye conceded.  
  
"Exactly. So the next time you consider opening your mouth, perhaps you should bother to think before you speak."  
  
Captain Japan inserted himself between the two. "Hey, ease off there, Iron Fern."   
  
"That's Rose. Iron Rose," the armored warrior corrected.   
  
"Ah, right. Anyway, the guy was just trying to help. So just relax."  
  
"Of course, Captain-sama," Iron Rose cooed.   
  
"Thanks for sticking up for me," Hawkeye added with a broad smile, and placed her hand on the Captain's arm as a show of appreciation.   
  
All sorts of warning senses went off in Captain Japan's head. The sort of attention the Iron Rose had been throwing his way was bad enough, but now Hawkeye was acting far too friendly for comfort. He darted away from both as quickly as he could. Too quickly, as his foot hit the edge of one of the seats and he began to topple backward. With reflexes at the peak of human condition, he spun and grasped out for something to keep from falling. His hand clutched onto an object and remained upright. The handhold was soft, yet firm, and not altogether uncomfortable to handle.  
  
At least, not uncomfortable to him. However, Thor was not terribly amused at the Captain grabbing onto her breasts to keep from falling.   
  
Once he had regained his footing, Captain Japan realized what he had used to balance himself and instantly paled. He gave a cry of fear jumping back and nearly colliding with Daredevil, who was shaking his head sadly at the display.  
  
Thor scowled, placing her arms under her ample bust. "See here. If thou wishes to fondle the Goddess of Thunder, it would be in thine best interest to do so under more private circumstances."   
  
Once the words settled in, every person on the aircraft looked in either surprise or shock at Thor, including herself.  
  
Captain Japan hastily apologized and claimed it was all an accident and he had absolutely no intention of fondling her, while both the Iron Rose and Hawkeye muttered expletives about gaijin of loose morals. Only Daredevil remained silent, the lone show of his disapproval a sad shaking of the head.  
  
The goddess could scarcely believe her own words. She was certain she had intended to say, "Thou art a pervert, and will be smited by mine hammer!" and was going to do so. But somewhere on the neural pathway between brain and mouth the words got very twisted. Though now that she thought about it, would it be so wrong to have such a strapping example of mortal flesh to wile away the time with?   
  
"I am not a pervert," Thor reassured herself, slapping her face and hoping she could knock some sense back into her head.  
  
"Sure you're not," Hawkeye said coolly. She was about to make another acidic comment when something outside the front of the cockpit window caught her attention. She turned just in time to see a flash of crimson light emit from an ancient stone fortress nestled on the top of a mountain they were approaching. The beam disappeared under the body of the quinjet, only to reappear a moment later by lancing through the middle of the floor of the passenger area and continue on its way through the ceiling and into the sky beyond, destroying everything in-between.  
  
And then Hawkeye became aware of the sensation of falling.   
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Perched in the middle of a trail leading up that self-same mountain, Ryouga watched in horror as the beam of light shot through the unusual aircraft. It was followed instantly by the aircraft initiating sudden dive, eventually going out of sight behind the side of the mountain. A trail of smoke marked the arrow-like plunge, followed by the cacophony of metal impacting on rock that reached Ryouga's ears.  
  
"We have to help them!" Ryouga shouted to his two companions.   
  
Yun-Lo was already praying the souls would find eternal peace. "There isn't going to be anyone to help, I'm afraid. There's no way anyone could have survived that crash. It was the will of the gods they were to meet their end this day."  
  
"It was the will of whoever shot them down with that beam of light."  
  
"Around here, it's much the same thing." Yun-Lo made another prayer, this one for protection.  
  
"Well, I'm going to check it out for myself."  
  
Yun-Lo began backing away from Ryouga, making sure to take Lin-Mei with him. "In that case, I think it best we part company here. You can keep going on up the mountain on your own."  
  
Ryouga misinterpreted the man's fear as concern over his granddaughter's safety. "I understand. Thanks for helping me as much as you have."  
  
Seeing such heartfelt thanks, Yun-Lo felt as though he had been kicked in the gut. Not that that it would make him warn the boy about his impending death. Being kicked in the gut hurt far less than being reduced to a pile of ashes.   
  
Ryouga bid the pair farewell and kept his eyes riveted on the trail of smoke. As long as he kept it in sight, he would hopefully head straight for the crash site, rather than ending up in Russia or someplace equally distant.  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
"I thought you said that thing was invisible to any tracking system on Earth!" Hawkeye shouted from her position in Iron Rose's arms as the armored warrior landed safely on the ground.   
  
"It is! I mean, it was!" she shouted back.  
  
"Then how was it we got shot down?!"  
  
"Maybe the tracking system isn't from Earth. Maybe it's from outer space," Captain Japan offered as Thor landed with both him and Daredevil clinging to her. He made absolutely certain his hands were nowhere near her breasts.  
  
"Bah!" the Goddess of Thunder snorted. "The next thing thou wilt claim is that there really are Stone Men from Saturn. All know there are not such things as beings from outer space."  
  
"They also know there aren't such things as gods," Hawkeye added dryly.  
  
Thor considered that. "Perhaps thou dost have a point. Mayhap I shall believe only when mine eyes lay upon hard evidence of such life from other planets."  
  
Now safely back on terra firma, Daredevil breathed a sigh of relief. He hated to admit it, but he owed his life to Thor. When the ship had been struck by what the others said was a beam of light, it immediately began to plummet to the ground far below. Completely disoriented by the unexpected attack, he was at a loss until Thor snatched both he and Captain Japan in one mighty arm and with her other threw her hammer. Her grip on the strap propelled them through the side of the craft. His radar sense allowed him to perceive the side of the craft being torn as though it was made of tinfoil. Thor made certain to interpose her own body between her passengers and the side of the craft, shielding them from the jagged pieces of metal that the hammer had left behind in its passage through the wall. Even now Daredevil could smell a small amount of blood trickling from a few scratches on her shoulder and arms.   
  
"Let me help. I have a first aid kit." Daredevil pulled a box with a Braille red cross on it from out of the confines of his robes.   
  
Thor looked down at the small injuries on her shoulder and arm. "Thou hast my thanks for thy gesture, but it would take far more than these mere scratches to affect mineself. With mine own Asgardian heritage, it should take but a few minutes for them to heal fully. Save your medicines for one of the more fragile members of this company should they suffer injury."  
  
"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Captain Japan said dryly.   
  
Now back on land and with her fear of plummeting to her death under control, Hawkeye reconsidered her admonishment of the woman who had prevented her from becoming mountainside okonomiyaki. While Thor had grabbed Daredevil and Captain Japan, Iron Rose had reacted by grabbing the archer and flying out the cockpit window as the aircraft plummeted downward. Even a cable arrow couldn't have saved Hawkeye's life under those conditions.   
  
"Thank you," she muttered to Iron Rose.   
  
"They must have detected the quinjet to fire upon in the first place. Somehow the fault must lie with me," Iron Rose reluctantly admitted.   
  
"Did anyone see who shot the plane out from under us?" Captain Japan asked.  
  
Hawkeye said, "I saw it right before it fired. It looked like it came from some old style stone fortress on the top of the mountain. It's really weird, since you wouldn't think one of those old kind of fortresses to be equipped with a laser."  
  
"No, there was too much kinetic energy for that to be a simple laser weapon," Iron Rose informed the others. "I'm uncertain what kind of device it was, but its sophistication is far beyond that of all but the most technologically advanced of societies or industries."  
  
"The Chinese government?" Daredevil inquired.  
  
"Doubtful. It was far more advanced than anything I've heard them developing," Iron Rose said.  
  
"It matters not," Thor boasted. "I shall take the fight to these base attackers and raze this fortress for having the audacity to fire upon mineself."  
  
"And get shot down just like the quinjet did?" Hawkeye mentioned.   
  
"I bet it wouldn't be the first time the braggart's been shot down," Iron Rose quipped.  
  
"What did thou just say?" Thor waved her hammer in the armored companion's direction.   
  
"Enough of this!" Captain Japan shouted, interposing himself between the two before another fight erupted. "Hawkeye's right. It's too risky to try to just fly up there and do a frontal assault on this place. That's where their defenses are going to be heaviest, if getting shot down once we got in sight of the place was any indication."  
  
"So what do you recommend we do?" Hawkeye asked.   
  
"It's easy," the Captain said nonchalantly. "We just find the secret entrance to this place."  
  
Daredevil finally entered the conversation, "I'm sorry, but I seemed to have missed something along the way. What secret entrance would that be?"  
  
Captain Japan looked the others over, as though they were stupid for even asking the question. "Come on, don't you guys know nothing? All these evil bad guy types always have secret entrances to their places. That way when guys like us come storming in to kick their butts, they can escape through them and harass us some other day."  
  
The quartet just stood there, gaping at his declaration. Then all four burst out in laughter.   
  
"Surely thou dost jest."  
  
"It is quite the humorous idea."  
  
"Right, like there's some sort of handbook all of these bad guy types follow."  
  
"Or better yet, a training academy where they learn how to become evil overlords. Hahahaha!"  
  
"Well, that's what my old man taught me when I was training to become a super hero." Seeing his 'allies' all laughing at his idea made Captain Japan consider ditching them altogether and finding the secret entrance on his own. That would show them.  
  
Not content to leave things alone, Thor went up to a part of the mountainside and said, "And how wouldst we go about finding this, 'Secret Entrance'? Perhaps we would but knock, and they would open this door for us." She tapped her hammer against the side of the mountain.  
  
Daredevil's laughter abruptly stopped. "Wait, do that again."  
  
"I didst not think the joke was so amusing it need be repeated."  
  
Daredevil shook his head. "No, no. I meant hit the side of the mountain again. But not too hard."  
  
Confused at her companion's odd request, Thor considered it for a moment, then decided she had nothing better to do. She tapped the side of the mountain, just like before.  
  
Daredevil strode up to the side and placed his ear against the rock. "I did hear something. Do it again."  
  
Slowly becoming irritated, Thor did so again. "Art thou happy?"  
  
Daredevil took several steps to his left. "There's a hollow place in the side of the mountain here, and it sounds pretty big if the echo is any indication."  
  
Thor looked at the patch of rock he was indicating. "It looks the same as any other to me."  
  
"Yes, how is it you can tell? I heard nothing," Iron Rose said.   
  
"Let's just say I have very good hearing and leave it at that. If one of you powerhouses wants to try pounding on the side of the mountain here, you can probably break through to the hollow area."  
  
Moving over to the spot that Daredevil indicated, Thor drew back her hammer.   
  
Right before Thor could bring it forward, Iron Rose shouted, "Wait! You might collapse whatever is on the other side if you just go pounding on it like a giant wrecking ball."  
  
Thor found she did not care for the comparison. "And hast thou a better idea?"  
  
In response, Iron Rose moved forward to stand next to Thor. She twisted the left upper arm of her armor. Several pieces of metal unfolded from their previously concealed housing on the arm. Each piece was long and fairly thin. All of them became progressively narrower until they tapered to a point. A second adjustment, and all the pieces bent slightly near the arm. A third one, and they moved outward again towards the end of the Iron Rose's arm, coming together to form what appeared to be the head of a very large drill.  
  
"I incorporated this specifically for digging and excavation. I believe it will fulfill our needs. You might have raw power, dearie, but I possess some degree of versatility that simply can't be matched. Ohohohoho!"  
  
Thor scowled as Iron Rose went to work. The remaining trio made certain to steer clear of both women. They could practically feel the sparks jumping from the pair of heroes. And they weren't always metaphysical as Thor tapped her hammer to the ground and sparks actually leapt from it.  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Thirty minutes later, the quintet found themselves inside a complex of caverns and passages.   
  
"I'm no geology expert, but I don't think these were formed naturally," Captain Japan stated.   
  
"Mayhap, but neither are they recently made. This place reeks of age."  
  
In a soft, almost reverent voice, Daredevil said, "Legends say that dragons once inhabited this part of the Bayan Han, and that they would move through the earth at will. Whenever anyone found tunnels such as these, they called them 'Dragon Lines' and would seal them up, lest the dragons came out and devoured them and all they cherished. The greatest and most powerful dragon of all was Fin Fang Foom, and only death awaited those that would dare disturb him in his lair."  
  
"There are no such things as dragons, superstitious plebeian," Iron Rose said, using her chest beam to light the way for the party.   
  
"I can personally assure thee dragons are real. Many are the number I slew in mine time." Thor began reminiscing. "I do remember upon one occasion I did have to rescue fair Idun from a rather pernicious dragon. One of Fafnir's brood, as I recall. He was a particularly vexing beast. It took me four blows to dispatch him, and he did strike me with his tail once. Though with the affections Idun showered upon me afterwards, it made the fight truly worthwhile."  
  
"Affections?" Hawkeye asked with a lifted eyebrow.  
  
"Eh?" Thor turned to see she had become the center of attention. She held her hand to her eyes to block out Iron Rose's light as it shown directly upon her face. "Err, did I say affections? I meant gratitude. She was most grateful for my rescue. She did bequeath unto me... Hmm. I don't remember exactly what she did give to me. I do remember Fandral being quite irate for whatever it was. He was dating her at the time. I think it had something to do with apples. She was the keeper of the Golden Apples of Immortality. Perhaps it was an apple pie she did bestow upon me." Thor wracked her mind for the memory. She was just about to give up when she remembered something about apples being mashed into a sauce. It was a good sauce, as she recalled. And there was something about how it was served. Oh yes, it was served upon a most unusual, but very delicious platter, specifically Idun's nude-  
  
Thor hit herself in the head with her hammer. Hard.  
  
The others stared at her in shock. Captain Japan said, "What was that about?"  
  
"I seem to have forgotten what it was," Thor said quickly, relieved that whatever it was she had almost remembered had escaped her, even if there was now a swelling upon the top of her head.  
  
"I think we're still heading up," Hawkeye said, changing the subject largely because she did not want to know what that was all about.  
  
"We've gone upwards precisely fifty-three point four meters from our initial starting point," Iron Rose informed her.   
  
"Got an altimeter in there?" Hawkeye asked.  
  
"Of course. It would be foolish to go soaring about while being unaware of my altitude."  
  
"Oh, I uh... knew that," Hawkeye said. "But I bet you don't have a CD player in there too."  
  
In answer, the words "Yappa pan, yappa pan, ish a ten," began blaring out over her speakers.  
  
"I was only kidding," the archer said, all too aware there was no way to recover from that one.  
  
Daredevil saved her from further humiliation as he said in a loud voice, "Did you guys feel that?"  
  
"Feel what?" Captain Japan asked.  
  
"I thought I felt a breeze."  
  
"So?" the Captain asked again.  
  
"We're underground."  
  
"Oh. Maybe we'd better be more on guard." Captain Japan shifted his shield from its carrying position to one where he could bring it up to deflect an attack in an instant.  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
The master of the citadel sat back in his throne of stone as he listened to his minion's report.   
  
Mint said, "I found those intruders, all right. They managed to survive the crash and ended up in that old complex of caverns we found in the mountain. There's the two guys whose butts we kicked and three others that operate out of Japan. I think one's a bodyguard for Kunou Industries. She's called the Iron Rose. I saw her on some press conference on the way over there. I don't know the other two, although the blond girl with the hammer has nice looking breasts."  
  
"Five, then. It appears we'll require the full attention of my forces." He turned to Elektra and the Swordsman. "This sort of thing is exactly why I hired you. Show me your worth. Bring me these meddlers."  
  
"Alive?" Elektra asked.  
  
"I would prefer them that way. If they have power, I would unlock their secrets and take them for myself. One can never have too much power. Though that is a secondary objective. If you need to kill them in order to prevent them from interfering, so be it. We are less than half an hour away from seeing my years' long plan reach fruition. That is what is paramount. The launch must go off unhindered."  
  
Swordsman gave a sweeping bow. "It will be as you say. I will see to it that all of them are brought to you intact."  
  
"Then go, my Lethal Legion. Bring me these meddlers, or bring me their heads. Either way, see to it they are brought to me."  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Ryouga looked at the hole leading to the interior of the mountain. He hadn't seen any bodies in the wreckage of the aircraft. That meant it was probably an unmanned plane. On the other hand, it didn't appear as though any debris had caused the recently made breach. He was at something of a loss as to what to do.  
  
Sticking his head in the hole, Ryouga called out, "Hello, is there anybody in there?"  
  
Only his voice echoed back.   
  
It was possible there was someone in the craft and they had been hurt and couldn't respond. But it was dark, and from the sounds of it, the cavern was vast. Still, he couldn't just walk away from someone who was injured, leaving them alone to die. He pulled out a flashlight he had discovered among the debris (when he was actually looking for some shoes, and maybe a shirt or two), and turned it on. Carefully scanning what was visible from the opening and the range of the light, he could see no signs of anyone injured or otherwise.  
  
"I'll just go in for a quick peek and come right back out," Ryouga said to himself as he entered the tunnel to try his hand at spelunking.   
  
xxxxxxxxxx  
  
"I hear something," Captain Japan told the others. "I think it's water."  
  
"That's what I've been telling you for the last ten minutes!" Daredevil shouted, then immediately winced as loud echoes assailed him. The close confines of the tunnel they were in played havoc with his enhanced sense of hearing. Every sound was magnified and bounced back at him, almost like an auditory version of his radar sense, save that it was proving uncomfortable whenever there was a loud noise. Like someone shouting.  
  
"Well excuse me, but some of us don't have your inhuman hearing," Captain Japan shot back. Under his breath, he mumbled, "What kind of power is super hearing anyway? It's as stupid as having super breath."  
  
"I heard that!" Daredevil snapped back.   
  
"I heard that," Captain Japan mocked. "I think we've pretty much confirmed you hear everything."  
  
"Including you farting twenty meters back," Daredevil retorted.  
  
"You said you didn't do that!" Hawkeye snapped.  
  
Captain Japan held up his hands in a warding gesture, "It wasn't! It was... Umm... Mine gas."  
  
"It was not mine gas," Daredevil retorted. "Mine gas smells very different from processed anchovies and beans." It was times like these that the blind adventurer wished he didn't have enhanced senses.   
  
"Even Volstagg the Voluminous could rarely create a stench as repulsive as that," Thor added somberly.  
  
"Oh, like I'm so sure none of you have ever cut one," Captain Japan shot back, giving up all pretenses of a defense.  
  
"Not in the presence of others. I have some sense of class," Daredevil snapped.  
  
"Praise be I had the foresight to build my own internal air-supply," Iron Rose said to herself.   
  
"Were we outside, I could summon a wind," Thor said.  
  
"I think our dear Captain already did a good job of that," Daredevil stated.  
  
Captain Japan turned around, his stance one of tensed up aggression. "Look, Smell Man, you've been riding me ever since we first met. I'm tired of it. If you want to have it out now, we can-- Hey!" Captain Japan spun around and held his bottom. He pointed an accusatory finger at Thor, who stood directly behind him. "Why did you grab my butt?"  
  
In completely innocent tones, she said, "Thou didst have a wedgie. Twas most unseemly."  
  
"I did not!"  
  
Hawkeye said, "She's right, Sugar. You did have one. It was real noticeable. I almost pulled it out myself."  
  
"And exactly why were you staring at my bottom? Thor I can understand, since she's a girl and all, and I'm me. A lot of girls can't keep their eyes off of me, not that I blame them."  
  
Daredevil let out a snort.  
  
Captain Japan let it pass. "But you're a guy. So exactly why are you staring at my butt?"  
  
Before Hawkeye could think of how to respond, Daredevil blurted out, "It's because he's gay, stupid."  
  
For a moment, Hawkeye almost let that go as an excuse, which was better than telling the truth. But seeing the look of surprise on Thor and Captain Japan's faces, she quickly said, "No, I'm not! I'll prove it! Watch this!"   
  
Hawkeye moved next to Thor, grabbed the taller woman's face, stood on her toes, and proceeded to suck face with the startled goddess for several moments before breaking off the kiss.   
  
"He is truly a man among men," Thor declared with a somewhat stupid grin.  
  
"There you have it," Hawkeye stated satisfactorily, surprised the whole thing wasn't as unpleasant as she thought it would be. Of course, right before she actually did it, she figured she would throw up in doing something as revolting as kissing another girl in order to maintain her cover. With that kind of expectation, it wasn't difficult to fall short and be happy about it. Not that she had any intention of ever kissing Thor again. Just that there were a lot of things that were worse, like breaking her hand and not being able to shoot arrows or cook okonomiyaki, or having to smell another one of Captain Japan's farts.   
  
Captain Japan turned on Daredevil. "Now who's the dummy? How could you think poor ole' Hawkeye is gay? I think you're projecting your own tendencies or something."  
  
"The only thing I'm going to project is this billy club into your head!" Daredevil pulled out one of his stick like weapons and drew back.  
  
"Bring it on!" Captain Japan brought up his shield in anticipation of deflecting the attack. Once the weapon was batted aside, he would proceed to give the loud-mouthed jerk a sound beating.  
  
"Ahem," Iron Rose said, catching everyone's attention. "As much as the show of one-upsmanship is terribly important, need I remind you all that we are here to bring that host of super-villains to justice? As powerful as I know I am, even I am reluctant to take on all four of them on my own. So I believe it would be in our best interest to settle our differences another time. Besides, I do believe I see a light coming from the tunnel in front of us."  
  
Reluctantly, Daredevil and Captain Japan turned away from one another and to the rest of the tunnel that lay before them. Sure enough, there was a faint glow of light some meters ahead.  
  
"Another time," the Captain told him.   
  
Daredevil nodded in agreement.  
  
With the differences solved, the group continued, Iron Rose shutting off her chest light once they drew near the opening. The sound of rushing water grew louder and filled the air as the quintet emerged from the tunnel to see where it had led.  
  
This cavern was unlike any of the others they had passed. It was huge, and had been crafted by the hand of man. Numerous fluorescent lights hung from the ceiling, illuminating the vast chamber. The group stood at the edge of a natural hole in the side of the cavern wall. Looking down, they could see a torrent of water the size of a small river, racing several meters below their perch. From the opening they could see the tremendous size of the chamber. It was easily a hundred meters long and just as wide. A huge reservoir of water was contained behind a man-made dam, which allowed the water to flow over it and form the river they had heard. Several huge pipes dipped into the reservoir, channeling thousands of gallons of water. The loud vibrations and noises coming from the conduits made it easy to tell that water was actively flowing through them.   
  
Above the reservoir, a man-made stonework bridge spanned one side of it to the other. The side the group was adjacent to was much smaller, with only a handful of machines and control panels whose purposes even Iron Rose could not determine with the distances involved. The far side was much larger. It was there that the bulk of the machinery resided. Soft hums and loud throbbing noises could be felt permeating the air. It was like a giant factory that had been left to run on automatic.  
  
"We need to get over there and check this out," Iron Rose said. Turning her gaze to the vast array of machinery in the cavern, her brilliant mind began to categorize what purposes the machines might serve. Within moments she suspected what their true design was.   
  
The others nodded in agreement. Thor said to Captain Japan and Hawkeye, "Hold on to my neck and climb on." Neither felt particularly comfortable with the way she looked at them as she issued the order, but neither of them could think of a reason to openly protest. Besides, as much muscle as the goddess had, she was still infinitely more to hang onto then clinging to the metal hide of Iron Rose. After only a moment's hesitation, the pair grabbed onto Thor's neck. One throw of Mjolnir later, Thor once again traveled through the air.   
  
Iron Rose brought Daredevil along, who likewise rode by grabbing under her neck and traveling on her back. The quintet of heroes landed safely and stood on the far side of the cavern, gazing at the machinery before them.  
  
Within seconds the Iron Rose confirmed her suspicions. "This is a coolant system for a reactor. I'm not completely familiar with the design, but that seems to be its purpose."  
  
"And you would be correct in your assumption."  
  
The five heroes turned in the direction of the voice. It came from the cavern's single exit a large manmade passageway that could accommodate a small truck and led upward. Four men stood some twenty meters away. Two were quickly recognized as Power Man and Swordsman. The other two were strangers. One was a somewhat slender man who wore a full body costume. His boots were a light red, as were his trunks, gloves, and the middle of his outfit's torso. A deep purple, almost the color of black, covered the legs, arms, and lower and upper torso. A white 'W' in the red section of the upper body. The only part of his flesh that showed was his nose and mouth. Red goggles were sewn into his headpiece, covering his eyes.   
  
The other newcomer, who had spoken, was far more subdued. He was wore loose white pants and shirt, and had a vest and bracers made of some sort of scaled mail. Hoop earrings hung from both ears, and oddly enough, pantyhose were wrapped around his head and waist, serving as a headband and sash respectively. A couple of gourds were tied to his waist by the makeshift sash.   
  
Captain Japan turned to Daredevil and pointed to the stranger. "Now there's your gay guy."  
  
"I am not gay!" the man shouted.   
  
The man dressed in blue and red said, "That's right. Pantyhose just uses pantyhose as his gimmick. It goes with his name."  
  
"His name?" the duo asked.  
  
"Pantyhose Tarou." The man in purple and red moved faster than the eye could follow, barely avoiding the fist Tarou aimed at his head.  
  
"I told you never to call me that!" Tarou raged.  
  
"But it's your real name. I tried giving you a super-villain one for when you were accepted in our ranks, but you told me you didn't want one because you thought they were all dumb," the man in purple protested.   
  
Captain Japan smirked. "If my name was something as stupid as Pantyhose, I'd have been happy to call myself just about anything else. Even something as lame as 'The Dazzler'."  
  
"Yeah. It's even dumber than that idiot Whizzer's name," Hawkeye laughed.   
  
"Hey! You can't call me that anymore!" the man in purple shouted.  
  
Hawkeye looked at him in surprise. It took a moment to place the voice. "You're the Whizzer?"  
  
Daredevil snorted. "Of course he is. Couldn't you tell? He's standing right there."  
  
"But he completely changed his costume. It doesn't look anything like his old one," Hawkeye pointed out.  
  
"Oh. I hadn't noticed." Seeking to change the subject, Daredevil said to the speedster. "What's your name now?"  
  
"Speed Demon," Mint preened proudly.  
  
The heroes applauded.   
  
Hawkeye said, "Good choice. Much better than that awful name and outfit you had before. If I didn't know you were such a moron, I'd probably be intimidated a little bit."  
  
"Thanks. I thought it was better, but hearing it from the competition makes me know I made the right choice," the newly dubbed Speed Demon said in sincere gratitude.  
  
Tarou rolled his eyes at his comrade's stupidity. He postured before the quintet of heroes and boldly proclaimed, "Enough talk. I would ask you guys to make things easy by giving up, but somehow I doubt you'll see things my way. And to be honest, I'd kick the crap out of you anyway, even if you did give up." He grinned evilly and cracked his knuckles.  
  
Posturing just as definitely, Captain Japan said, "Buddy, the day I can't beat some pathetic loser with a pantyhose fetish is the day I finally choose a fiancee."  
  
"Why you..." Whatever Tarou was about to say died on his lips. Instead, he gave Captain Japan a confused look. "I have absolutely no idea what that meant. Was it supposed to be an insult or an attempt at bravado? It wasn't very good if it was either one."  
  
Captain Japan just shook his head. "Ah, like you said. Enough talk. Let's get to it!"  
  
"Wait!" Hawkeye shouted to the others as she unleashed an arrow at the group of villains standing thirty meters away.   
  
Only Speed Demon reacted in time and fled the area as the arrow was launched over the heads of the group. At first it appeared that the missile would sail far over the Lethal Legion's heads, until it began emitting an ear piercing shriek, making the remaining trio of villains cover their ears in pain. To make matters worse, the arrow began flying in a large circle over their heads rather than merely sailing past.   
  
Despite the twenty meter distance, Thor, Captain Japan, and even Hawkeye winced at the pain from the sonic arrow she had fired at the group. She was about to shout at the top of her lungs to let the arrow continue until it used up its battery when she saw Daredevil writhing on the ground in even worse pain than the opposition.   
  
"MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT STOP!" he shouted, covering his ears and rolling on the ground unable to stop himself.   
  
"What's going on?!" Hawkeye shouted, then realized the end of her sentence was the only sound in the cavern. She and the others looked back and saw that the arrow was lying on the floor. A shuirken had destroyed the arrowhead, ruining the sonic device.   
  
"What the-" was all Hawkeye got out as Captain Japan shoved her out of the way. The force of the push bowled her over and to the ground.  
  
"Stay down!" he shouted as he held his shield above both his head. A moment later, a loud clang resounded off the protective disc, and a red and flesh-colored body arced over it to land on its feet with a feline grace.  
  
Hawkeye saw that the absent Elektra had finally put in an appearance. She had evidently taken the time during the face-off to crawl along the ceiling and position herself above the heroes. Luckily, she had been far enough from the sonic arrow to be unaffected by its cry, so she had destroyed the weapon that had immobilized her comrades, then went after one of her opponents. Hawkeye felt she should have been flattered that the ninja had chosen her as the most dangerous and first to neutralize, but it was sort of hard to do from her position on her back.  
  
Before Hawkeye could turn her starry eyes to the awesome hunk of heroism who had saved her life, she heard Tarou shout, "Get them, but leave that Japan guy to me! No one calls me a queer and gets away with it!"  
  
Captain Japan jumped clear of the fallen archer and met Tarou head on. The move allowed Hawkeye to return to her feet, just as the battle swung in full force.  
  
As though a subconscious decision, opponents began to square off against one another in pairs, gaining distance from one another in order to operate more efficiently.   
  
"Those are some seriously nice breasts," Power Man said as he swung his fist at Thor.  
  
For just a split second, Thor was taken aback. Reflexively she was about to shout out she had no interest in perverts. Unfortunately, that left her open for a moment in which Power Man connected fully with a haymaker to her jaw. The blow staggered even the goddess, and she fell down, lying fully on her back.   
  
"That takes care of that." Power Man dusted off his hands. No one could withstand a solid punch to the head. Not from him and his tremendous strength.  
  
His theory was proven erroneous just as quickly as Thor sprang to her feet. A boot was brought into his stomach before he could throw a second punch. The blow had such force behind it that it caused even Power Man to double over.   
  
"Thou dost possess some measure of strength behind thy blows. Now feel one that is backed by the true might of Asgard!" The meeting of Thor's fist with Power Man's flesh sounded like one of her thunderous bolts. The villain's body went sailing across the reservoir and into the far wall. The force from the impact embedded him in the side of the cavern, creating a crater that resembled a meteorite impact, one that had crashed vertically into the rock. The large man hung in the wall, motionless.   
  
"That matter hath been resolved." Thor took inventory of their surroundings. The others were locked in pitch battle, but it was painfully obvious this so-called Lethal Legion was nothing more than a collection of lackeys. There was someone else that was in charge of this lot and pulling their strings. It was beneath her to deal with these underlings. She was Thor, scion of the Realm Eternal. To her the leaders of armies fell.  
  
Satisfied things were well in hand, she threw her hammer in the air and sailed into the opening from whence the Lethal Legion had entered the cavern. Let the others waste their times with those fools. She had more important people to defeat. Then she would bring back the defeated body of this lot's master, and if the battle still raged, would call a halt to things as she showed that she had vanquished the enemy's leader. She would show that Iron Rose what it meant to scoff at the Goddess of Thunder's prowess.  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
"So your name is Pantyhose, huh?  
  
"Call me that again and I'll feed you all your teeth instead of just half of them, Flag Boy! Or is that Fag Boy?"   
  
Tarou took a swing at Captain Japan, only to meet air as the Captain ducked underneath it. He tried to retaliate, but Tarou leaped into a ball and spun out of the way of the high kick aimed at his jaw.  
  
"Like someone wrapped in pantyhose has any business accusing someone else of being gay!" Captain Japan's next punch was deflected, as was the leap kick he tried to use.  
  
"What's your name, Flag Boy?" Tarou's punch impacted solidly with the shield. A resounding thump rose from the sound of flesh meeting metal.  
  
"Captain Japan, Lederhosen Man." Captain Japan tried hitting Tarou with the flat of the shield, but missed as the youth dodged out of the way again.  
  
Tarou backed just out of reach and smirked. "By the time I'm done with you, I'll have you busted down to Private Parts while you'll be calling me General Bad Ass."  
  
Both men tried to kick each other, each hitting the other's leg in an identical move.  
  
Captain Japan said, "You don't completely suck." He aimed a blow for Tarou's stomach, barely missing.   
  
"You do. I'm just toying with you." Tarou backed his claim by throwing a straight punch towards Captain Japan's face. His longer reach enabled him to connect, the force of the knuckles snapping the Captain's head back. Before he could follow up, Captain Japan brought his shield up, cleanly connecting with underside of Tarou's jaw and driving the youth back.  
  
Tarou scowled evilly at the circle of metal. "Hey, Flag Boy, ditch the shield and fight fair."  
  
"Okay." Captain Japan hurled the shield like a discus to their left.  
  
Even as the disc left the Captain's hands, Tarou had already jumped up in the air and prepared to administer a kick that would finish his opponent. He taunted, "God, you're a complete idiot! I'd never give up an advantage!"  
  
At that moment, the shield, which had bounced off a nearby wall, returned. Tarou intercepted its flight with his side. The blow hurled him several feet away and stunned him badly enough that he didn't return to his feet immediately.   
  
"I wouldn't either, sucker." Captain Japan retrieved his shield and squared off with his opponent once again.  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
In the opening moments of the battle, Iron Rose tried focusing on Speed Demon. She had thought her armor's tracking computer made him her ideal foe, and she would bring him down with but a single blast. But his speed proved too quick even for her technological wizardry to match. Each time she thought she had him he would dart out of the way. Even when she thought she had anticipated where he would be, he would suddenly veer off course and her blast would go astray. It was a pity that he wasn't foolish enough to hurl his limited strength against the durability of her armor. It was just a test of patience now, his endurance to her armor's power supply. She had little doubt about emerging victorious from the fight.  
  
And then a voice came to her right.   
  
"Armored foe, turn from that jackrabbit and test a warrior that is worthy of your mettle."  
  
Iron Rose turned to see the Swordsman standing before her. He saluted her once with his katana. "Though it pains to employ my talents against a woman, I fear my erstwhile comrade in arms would fall before your might. So it behooves me to relieve you of the burden of this fight. Fear not, for I shall be as gentle with thee as the wind." He danced forward with his sword.  
  
Underneath her armor, Iron Rose let her teeth gnash together. The way this imbecile babbled reminded her of her brother. It would be her pleasure to 'relieve him of the burden of this fight.' As a sign of contempt, she targeted his sword rather than the man himself. Without it, he would be as useless as... well, as useless as her brother had always been.   
  
The Iron Rose's repulsors were locked on to the blade when she froze. The katana! Impossibly, she recognized it, having designed the weapon herself. It was no mere blade of metal, but rather a KTK-1103B constructed of adamantium alloy. It had been one of the last projects she worked on before her accident. But there had been only the one prototype made, and that was by herself personally. She had not had the chance to share the design with anyone else, and it would have taken the experts at Kunou Enterprises months to figure out how to reverse engineer it. She would have known if they tried when she had returned. To the best of her knowledge, the sword should have still been in the prototypes vault at Kunou Enterprises. How could it be in the hands of this gaudily dressed buffoon halfway across a continent?  
  
She was so surprised by the appearance of the weapon she neglected to fire. The hesitation cost her as the tip of the blade shattered the circle that made up the center of her chest weapon array. The Swordsman discharged a power blast through the blade just as the tip breached the armor's exterior. Past the insulation provided by her armor, the blast instantly overloaded the majority of her systems. Only the surge protectors she had placed throughout the suit kept it from being ruined forever, though the smell of burning ozone indicated not all the systems had survived the blast. Iron Rose herself received a nasty shock from the backlash through the armor from the discharge.  
  
Between the weight of the armor and the shock, Iron Rose was unable to stay upright. She fell over, almost completely inert. Within the confines of her bulky metal coffin, Kodachi felt as though her chest was on fire. "Not the pacemaker," she thought to herself. That was the most heavily protected part of the entire armor, the only thing that kept her alive. If it shut down, she would die. It was supposed to be on its own separate system, but the shock she had personally received might have disrupted it, and unfortunately its back-up system was linked to the armor, which was in the process of a complete crash.   
  
Praying it was nothing more than an errant heart palpitation and that Swordsman didn't try to press an advantage, she prayed and rebooted her armor.  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
"You really shouldn't have come here, Daredevil!" The admonishment was delivered during the course of four punches delivered to various parts of his body at super speed.  
  
Daredevil recoiled from each one. This was the last person he should have been fighting. The sonic arrow that idiot, Hawkeye, had fired, ended up hurting him more than the opposition. Outdoors it would have been bad enough, but within the confines of the cavern the sound bounced off the walls, overloading his senses and sending him into a pain-filled frenzy. Even after the arrow was destroyed, it took him a minute to overcome the pain and return to his feet. He had only just stood up when Speed Demon was upon him, hitting him all over his body. No two blows landed on the same spot. With the pain he was in, his radar sense still trying to recover from being overloaded, and the quickness of Speed Demon, it left him unable to get a bead on the man. Every one of his attempts to hit the speedster was off, and they were getting further away with each succeeding blow that was landed upon him.   
  
"Stand still," Daredevil growled, trying to hit his foe with a billy club.  
  
A chop hit his extended arm, forcing him to drop the weapon. The pain disoriented him for a split second, and when he tried using his radar sense to locate the weapon, but he couldn't find it.   
  
"Where?" was all he got out as he discovered the location of his billy club the hard way when Speed Demon hit him in the back with it.  
  
The speedster finally halted ten meters to Daredevil's right, tossing the club up and down idly in his hand. "You know something? I like this. It's small and compact, yet solid. It's got to hurt way more than my fists. I think I'll keep it."  
  
A plan came to Daredevil's mind. From what little he knew of the villain, it should work. Wiping some blood away from a split lip, Daredevil said, "Whatever you do, don't push the button on the grip." The button that would extend a cable, which would wrap Speed Demon up with the way he was holding it. The billowing sleeve held up to his lip hid the red-garbed adventurer's smile. Anyone else wouldn't fall for such a transparent trick, but Speed Demon swiftness was physical rather than mental.  
  
The speedster examined the device more closely. "Ah ha! Found it. See?" He showed where the button was on the grip. He touched the top of the button, then grabbed the club in the middle again. "Thanks for the warning. In gratitude, I'll be gentle when I knock you out."  
  
"What?" was all Daredevil got out as the club connected with his back and stomach almost simultaneously. It figured Speed Demon would be too stupid to fall for a trick that stupid. It was probably the first time in Daredevil's life that he had literally outsmarted himself.   
  
And with the way the fight was going, it would probably be the last.  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Hawkeye found herself being forced to fight the person who had tried to remove her from the field of combat in the first place. Elektra was doing her best to impale the archer on one of the sais she wielded with expert skill. Hawkeye did her best to not end up impaled on them. Unfortunately, since the ninja was so close at the beginning of the fight, Hawkeye found it nearly impossible to use her bow. She needed range to properly employ the weapon. Elektra seemed to sense this and refused to allow the archer the distance she needed.   
  
Though the battle had lasted less than a minute, the wounds Hawkeye had suffered indicated it probably wouldn't go two more. Despite using what hand-to-hand skills she had learned from her father and picked up on her own, it was taking everything she had to keep from being skewered. Her bow was being used more to deflect sai thrusts than to shoot arrows. The only two shots Hawkeye managed to get off were both easily evaded by the agile ninja. And even then, she suffered several punches, kicks, and light cuts, despite all but running away. Worse, she was starting to slow down, and it was obvious the ninja wasn't even winded.   
  
As Hawkeye spun out of the way of yet another thrust aimed at her leg, she spotted Daredevil struggling against the flitting Speed Demon. The moron was doing little more than running around in circles, hitting the red-garbed adventurer at will. It was a pity they had the opponents they did, since Hawkeye had thought she had figured out a way to deal with the speedster since their last fight...  
  
Her plan came together in a split second. Seeing Elektra aiming a kick at her stomach, Hawkeye took the blow rather than dodge so she could draw the arrow she needed. The kick hurt, and she suspected one or two of her lower ribs were broken, or at least bruised. Still, Hawkeye shut out the pain and fired the arrow at Daredevil's feet.   
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Daredevil was seconds away from unconsciousness when he noticed at the edges of his radar sense one of Hawkeye's arrows approaching. He silently cursed the archer's errant shot, which was going to land near him. He hoped it wasn't one of the exploding arrows, which would almost certainly succeed in crippling if not killing him outright. But there was nothing he could do about it with Speed Demon slowly beating him to death. The way the fight was going, perhaps it would be better to meet a quick demise instead of the lingering and agonizing one that the speedster seemed intent on delivering.  
  
The arrow impacted with a loud squishing noise. The scent of grease reached Daredevil's nostrils.   
  
"Argh!" Speed Demon cried out as he lost his footing. With his concentration solely on his opponent, he never saw the arrow. He slipped on the grease and immediately lost control. His arms were a flurry of motion as he tried to stay upright. All the arm flapping did was propel him even faster. He collided with one of the machines that operated the coolant at near maximum speed and completely out of control, stunning himself. Speed Demon was remembering something about breasts as a series of chains wrapped around his entire body, a double layer around his legs.   
  
"One down," Daredevil said in a tired voice as he readied himself to reenter the fray, all thoughts of admonishing Hawkeye forgotten. Remembering the archer, he turned to thank him when he sensed what was about to happen.   
  
"Look out!" Daredevil cried in her direction.   
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Hawkeye turned in panic, wondering if Elektra had moved faster than she had anticipated and was preparing to run her through again. Hawkeye blindly brought her bow in front of her in a sweeping motion, hoping to deflect the incoming blow. Instead she saw in the space between bow and bowstring that Elektra was backflipping away from her. Breaking off her attack made no sense. What was she up to?  
  
Hawkeye never got a chance to sort things out as the blast from the Swordsman's katana fully struck her in the ribs, knocking her backward and into unconsciousness.  
  
Holding his sword up high, Swordsman boldly proclaimed. "And so yet another foe falls before my awesome skill. Is there no one capable of giving a warrior of my character a challenge?"  
  
Instinctively he brought his sword up to block the billy club thrown at him. He leveled his weapon at Daredevil. "So, you would seek to attack me when I implore the heavens for an answer to my question?"  
  
"I am the answer to your question." A set of chains shot out from his sleeve.  
  
Spinning his sword in a clockwise motion, Swordsman caught all of the chains with his blade, tying them up in his sword. He then tilted it downward, the chains falling off and harmlessly to the ground. "A challenge? I think not. And since you have the appearance of a devil, it's obvious you are not from above, but rather below."  
  
"No challenge? Try this on for size!" Daredevil smiled inwardly as he threw a white oval at his foe.  
  
Rather than simply slashing at it, as Daredevil hoped, Swordsman again whirled his sword, not only intercepting the oval, but somehow arresting its forward motion and allowing it to sit on the flat of his sword as he held it outward.   
  
Swordsman looked curiously at the object. "An egg? You would assault me with poultry products? Truly you are no challenge at all. But since you seem to have such a fascination with food, I shall allow you to serve me breakfast once I rule over Kyoto."  
  
He used the blade to toss the egg over his shoulder. He was about to move forward when the egg landed, cracking open. Rather than merely leaking yolk, it spilled a volatile substance which created an impressive explosion. Swordsman turned to look what had happened then returned his attention to Daredevil. "You cad! How dare you engage in such subterfuge, disguising your bombs as harmless foodstuffs! Have you no honor?"  
  
"Your sword's disguised to shoots beams of energy, you hypocrite!"  
  
"It's not the same thing," Swordsman contended.   
  
"It's exactly the same thing!"  
  
Leveling his sword in Daredevil's direction, Swordsman softly intoned, "I will not have someone as reprehensible as you besmirch my noble name."  
  
"How can you call me reprehensible when you're the bad guy?!"  
  
"Again you try to shift the blame."  
  
"I am not shifting any blame!"  
  
"Since you are unwilling to own up to your own inadequacies by projecting them upon me, I will force this lesson of not slandering your betters upon you." He sent a blast of force Daredevil's way.   
  
The adventurer responded by leaping out of the path of the beam. "It's not so easy to hit someone that knows your little trick, is it?"  
  
Swordsman held his sword in a guard position. "Then I shall employ more brutal methods to force you to accede to my demands." He rushed forward to attack.   
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Captain Japan's fist impacted solidly with Tarou's shoulder.   
  
Tarou's attempted palm strike to the chin ended long before coming close to its intended target when it hit the shield. Worse for him, he fell victim to a low kick to the side of his leg, and then a knee to the gut.   
  
Pantyhose was taking three blows to one, and now it was getting closer to four. He was losing quickly, and it was all the result of that damnable shield. It was more than a weapon, it was an extension of his opponent's arm. And that made all the difference in the fight. His technique allowed some of his adversary's blows to be deflected by his bracers, but not anywhere near the number that were being blocked by his opponent's shield.  
  
Tarou attempted another knuckle strike, having some measure of success with it in the early stages of combat. But this time Captain Japan was prepared and brought the shield down on the arm before it could connect. Tarou roared out in pain from the blow.   
  
Before Captain Japan could finish his opponent off, a backflipping figure finally stopped her movement by landing her feet into the small of his back. He gave out a short growl of pain even as he lashed blindly backward with the shield. Elektra had crouched low upon landing and the edge of the shield went over her head. She brought her sai forward, the tip slashing through the material of Captain Japan's uniform across the center of his chest. A thin trickle of blood formed where the metal had caressed flesh.   
  
A second fist had more luck by connecting cleanly with Elektra's face, sending her backward, though not off her feet. Captain Japan fingered the crimson line across his chest. "Ordinarily I don't like hitting girls, but in your case, I'm going to make an exception."   
  
"You're not going to get the chance," a voice behind him warned.   
  
Captain Japan turned to see Tarou now stood several meters away. The Captain sneered. "Go ahead and take me two-on-one if it'll make you feel better."  
  
"I've got something a little harder in mind, Flag Boy."   
  
"Like what?"  
  
Tarou pulled one from the gourds out of his pantyhose sash, opened the cork on the top, and poured the contents over his head.   
  
Captain Japan's eyes widened as pinkish flesh gave way to green scales. Arms once lined with lithe muscles became bigger and stronger, containing ten times the mass they once possessed. The head became squatter and sprouted horns and a snout, becoming an inhuman visage. Wings, feathered and green, sprouted out of the back of a torso that became inhumanly large and deformed. Even a tail sprouted out of the back of the spine, moving independently and possessing the head and fangs of an eel.  
  
"Okay, I didn't see that one coming," Captain Japan admitted.   
  
Senses returned but hands and legs still bound, Speed Demon said, "Behold the awesome fusion of ancient transformation magic, controlled gamma ray bombardment, and bad attitude. Where once the man known as Pantyhose Tarou stood, now there remains only a monster. Witness the majestic strength, the unimaginable might, the incomprehensible power of... the A-bra-mination."  
  
The A-bra-mination bellowed out a cry of rage and flew over to Speed Demon's prone form. He picked up the bound speedster and roared again in his face. The color seemed to wilt from Speed Demon's mask.  
  
"What?! What?!" Speed Demon babbled. "I didn't give you that name for the re-christening of your new form. It was the boss. He thought it was in keeping with the whole Pantyhose motif. Don't get mad at me!"  
  
Roaring at the fortress above their heads, the A-bra-mination tossed Speed Demon away. He hit stomach first across some machinery.   
  
"That hurt just a little bit," he moaned.   
  
Once again the A-bra-mination turned its attention to Captain Japan.   
  
Looking up at the two-ton monstrosity, the Captain said, "I don't suppose if I throw my shield away you'll go back to your human form again, would you?"  
  
The A-bra-mination shook his head.  
  
"Somehow, I didn't think so."  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Ryouga Hibiki shone the flashlight's weak beam in front of him, hoping the sounds he heard coming from up ahead were people who could help lead him out of this complex set of caverns. This time ending up lost was not his fault. He thought he had seen something shiny in one of the branches off the first cavern he had entered. It turned out to be just his light glinting off a small puddle of water that had formed below a stalactite, but when he went to return to the exit, he had discovered it had moved. That made the situation... bad. He was underground with no food or water and only a flashlight for a light source. Since no one was looking for him, no one would find him and lead him to an exit. He couldn't remain where he was since he would eventually starve, so that meant wandering around and finding the way out. Unfortunately, there was more than one way to go. In fact, it seemed like someone had constructed a maze out of the chambers and passageways leading through the mountain. He was certain he was going around in endless circles, his flashlight growing weaker as the battery began to give out, when he heard what might have been thunder from up ahead. Luckily, the tunnel he was in had only one opening and no side passages, so he hoped that by going straight he could find the source of the noise and have someone help him get out of the labyrinth. Spelunking was for idiots, he decided.  
  
xxxxxxxxxx  
  
A pair of eyes opened. Slowly, the dawn of realization came to them. "Wow! Not only does she have nice titties, but she can hit hard, too." Power Man wondered if the heady miasma fogging his thoughts was love or a concussion.   
  
Mindful of the river below, Power Man carefully pried himself out of the wall. Luckily the vertical impact crater was deep enough for him to get a good hold with his feet and hands so he could leap across the river and back onto the far side of the reservoir. Once more he would help his Lethal Legion comrades take care of the intruders so the boss could get back to more important matters, like ruling the world. He chose his target and moved forward, intent on being able to say that he had defeated at least one opponent today.  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
About 33% of the Iron Rose's systems had come back on line when she saw Power Man land only a few meters in front of her.   
  
"Oh dear." She looked at the display, focusing on one system in particular.  
  
Repulsors: 52% Efficiency  
  
"I suppose that will have to do," she lamented as she manually targeted him and unleashed a double beam upon Power Man.  
  
Unprepared for the attack, Power Man found himself blown off his feet and backward. Rather than striking just once, like a fist would, the repulsors were continuously focused on him, hammering him with unrelenting force. He was driven backward, hurting every meter of the way until a bank of machines prevented him from losing more ground. He was in the process of being driven into the machine itself, when the beams abruptly stopped. Catching his breath, he saw the armored warrior doing something to her gauntlets. Despite the pain from the blasts, he forced himself to his feet and ran forward.  
  
Iron Rose mentally cursed that sword-wielding buffoon again for shutting down her system. It was his fault the power sent to the repulsor rays was more than the damaged wiring could bear. She had opened the emergency panel in her gauntlets and was about to switch the power coupling over to a good circuit when she noticed her opponent had withstood her assault and was charging toward her. Maybe Power Man wasn't such a bad name for him. She fought down the urge to panic as she rerouted the power cable to her left repulsor. She could feel the trembling of the earth through the bottom of her metal-shod feet as her large, powerful foe drew closer.   
  
"Got it," she shouted, brought her left arm up, and fired. Unfortunately, Power Man was already upon her. His mighty fist impacted with devastating force against her breastplate, sending her shot wide.   
  
xxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Ryouga stuck his head out of the hole just in time to see a blast of energy hit the ceiling directly above him. His eyes widened as the repulsor blast proved too much for the tunnel's ceiling, and it collapsed on top of him.  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Power Man picked up his opponent and slammed her headfirst into the ground for the third time in a row. Unlike the previous attempts, her feet no longer moved afterwards. Just to be certain, he kicked the arms a few times, but again there was still no response.   
  
"I got one!" he shouted to the others. Things were looking good. Speed Demon was out, but so was the archer, and now the armored warrior. To improve the situation, Pantyhose had changed into the A-bra-mination, and had the guy with the shield clearly on the defensive. Only the red guy he had knocked out in the airport was holding his own against the Swordsman. Elektra seemed content to remain off to the side, waiting for a moment to enter a fight when an opening would present itself. Only Thor was missing.  
  
Power Man was still mentally debating whether to knock the red guy out again or search for Thor, when a roar of anger --as deep as the one the A-bra-mination bellowed when Speed Demon tried giving him the 'villainous' name of Garters Jockstrap-- shook the air. On the far side of the cavern a fountain of boulders that had been pulverized into gravel shot upward. What emerged from the cloud of powdered stone reminded Power Man of the A-bra-mination, mostly because what had leapt across and was sailing through the air was muscular, green, and very, very angry.  
  
The Hulk landed in front of Power Man and raised his fists high above his head. "Who tried to bury Hulk? Was it you, Not-So-Little-Man? Did you try to bury Hulk?"  
  
"I'll take care of their reinforcements!" Power Man shouted, and hit the Hulk with a solid right to the jaw, snapping the green goliath's head back.   
  
The Hulk's head returned slowly to its original face-forward position. He glared at Power Man in anger. "You hit Hulk! Now Hulk hit back!"  
  
Power Man was vaguely aware of something, perhaps an atomic bomb, exploding in his stomach. Then there was definitely the sensation of flying, only to be followed by an abrupt stop. His eyes were barely able to focus on the crater of rock surrounding him, and at the people that now stood below, staring in awe at where he had ended up.  
  
"I think I'll stay put this time. Good night." The eyes rolled into the back of his head and the world turned black.  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
The Hulk turned in fury to the remaining people. "Who else is going to try to hit Hulk?"  
  
Captain Japan turned to the A-bra-mination. "How dare you call the Hulk stupid and ugly!"  
  
The A-bra-mination looked in surprise at his foe.  
  
"Hulk is not stupid or ugly!" the giant protested.   
  
The A-bra-mination tried protesting, but all his vocal cords could produce were grunts and growls.  
  
Captain Japan 'interpreted' the sounds for the Hulk. "He also says he thinks you're weak and have bad breath, but I disagree with him."  
  
"Hulk is strong and brushes his teeth all the time!"  
  
The A-bra-mination tried to hit the little man, bit Captain Japan proved too nimble as he leapt out of the way. The monstrosity was about to try again when he saw the Hulk run forward, shouting, "Hulk does not have Hally-Toe-Sis!"   
  
Due to his own tremendous size and weight, and being within the close confines of the cavern, the A-bra-mination elected to stand his ground and braced for the collision. Ever since his employer boosted his strength and endurance with a controlled gamma ray bombardment, he went from simply being a bad ass to being invincible in monster form. He could even take multiple blows from Power Man and remain standing. Though this newcomer was big, he didn't know who he was messing with. The A-bra-mination would take the green oaf's first shot, then return it with interest.   
  
At least that was what he thought until the Hulk slammed into him full force. Nearly half of the coolant system was destroyed as the A-bra-mination's body was hurled through row after row of machinery before coming to rest against the rock of the cavern wall. Luckily, the impact did nothing to loosen the ceiling of the reinforced chamber.  
  
The Hulk smiled in satisfaction at his handiwork. "Now Hulk showed who is strongest one of all." He took a sniff of the air. "Oh, Green Cow not smell so good himself."  
  
"Yeah. Nothing a good bath in acid wouldn't take care of," Captain Japan said.   
  
The Hulk looked at the smaller youth, scratching his head in confusion. "Hulk thinks he remembers you. Wasn't Hulk trying to smash you before?"  
  
Remembering the results of their last encounter, Captain Japan thought fast and said, "Ah, no, no, no. That was my evil twin brother."  
  
"Evil twin brother?"  
  
"Sure. Every hero has one. It makes life interesting for them when they pop up and besmirch their good name."  
  
"Does that mean Hulk has evil twin brother?"  
  
"Now that's a scary thought." Captain Japan considered what the world would be like with two Hulks after his blood.  
  
Before their conversation could continue, there was another tremendous roar that came from the direction the A-bra-mination had landed. The Hulk looked up and saw his foe flying towards him. The green feathered wings couldn't make the A-bra-mination's flight graceful, but it mattered little, given the monster appeared as enraged as the Hulk had been upon discovering himself buried under a ton or so of rock.   
  
"Hulk doesn't like stupid Green Cows that have been smashed and don't know it." The Hulk snarled as the mightiest legs on the planet tensed up and sprang forward, propelling him upwards to meet the A-bra-mination head on.  
  
For a moment, both green titans hung suspended in mid-air, motionless as equal physical forces canceled each other out. But then the A-bra-mination's wings made the difference as they continued propelling him forward. He smashed the Hulk into the ground, further pulverizing the machinery that had already been ruined by the A-bra-mination initial journey courtesy of the Hulk's fist.  
  
The Hulk picked himself up off the ground. "Hulk doesn't like being hit by smelly Green Cow! Hulk will smash!"   
  
The A-bra-mination mirrored the Hulk's sentiment as he landed and the two began to pound away in earnest upon one another's emerald hides.  
  
Even Captain Japan backed away from the fight. The force from the blows the pair exchanged were producing winds that he could feel even twenty meters away. "I'm not getting involved in that unless big and stupid is really getting his head handed to him," he muttered to himself.   
  
His attention was still riveted to the fight when heard something move behind him. He spun around, his shield in front of him, just in time to prevent a pair of sais from being buried in his back. "Don't you ever give up?"  
  
Elektra said nothing as she picked up the fight against him once again. Captain Japan's counterattack drove the fight to the bridge that spanned the raging torrent formed on the far side of the reservoir. It was there the duo entered their dance of violence in earnest.  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Thor strode through the vast halls of the mountain fortress, becoming further enraged with each step. The low ceiling prevented her from flying, forcing her to search on foot. Worse, the true master of the fortress was undoubtedly hiding from her wrath rather than confront her in combat. In truth, there seemed to be no one else present. No more lackeys, no internal defenses, not even a pack of rabid guard dogs. Even Loki used to keep rabid guard dogs around his various hideouts. It was traditional.  
  
Thor's fists were itching to smite an opponent, and she was beginning to think abandoning the fight below was a mistake. For the fourth time in as many minutes, she yelled, "I will not dally around with thy lackeys, villain! Show yourself that we may do battle and decide who is the mightiest of all!"  
  
Silence was the only response.   
  
"Very well! You leave me but one course of action!" She brought her hammer back and threw it. Mjolnir easily transformed the closest stone wall into rubble. A resounding boom from the impact echoed throughout the fortress.   
  
*This way.*  
  
Thor looked wildly around. The voice was soft, like a serpent's, though it dripped honey more than venom. Also it had seemed to come from within her head. "What sorcery is this?"  
  
*Over here.*  
  
Thor turned to the left. Yes. Somehow she knew that was the direction the voice was telling her to go. It was about time the villain who ruled this place found the courage to confront her. Soon she would dispatch her foe and end this farce. Besides, she had to get home soon or her family might grow concerned with her absence.  
  
*You're almost there.*  
  
Upwards Thor traveled, following a large ramp until she came to a wall made of metal rather than stone. There appeared to be no door. Instead there was an opening wide enough to allow her godly form to enter without being hindered. Eager for battle, she strode through the opening, ready to confront her opponent.   
  
The room was vast and circular, metal lining the entire chamber. It appeared unadorned and uninteresting. Smoke filled the room, coming down from vents overhead. It was thick enough to shroud the far side of the chamber like a fog. A dull whine came from overhead, filling the room so it was nearly impossible to hear herself think.   
  
She was about to shout when she saw him appear through the smoke on the far side of the room. He was slightly tall and slender of build. Hair, long and white, cascaded down his back and ended slightly below his waist. His age indicated he was only a few years older than her mortal form. His face was passingly handsome, strong, and full of character. He possessed a certain haughtiness that implied this was the sort of man who was used to being obeyed by others, similar to the All-Father.  
  
His trappings were colorful, almost gaudy. His outfit was close and form-fitting, showing a lithe but powerful body. He wore what appeared to be a shirt made of some kind of scale armor. A long purple cape flowed behind him, as though it possessed a life of its own. But the most noticeable thing about his appearance were his hands. On each finger and thumb there were rings. They were not filled with various gems of wealth, but with odd projections that seemed to cover every color of the spectrum. They were large enough to be easily noticed even with the distance between the two of them. The stranger looked down upon Thor, as though a king might look upon a lowly dog.  
  
"At last thou shows thyself, cowardly villain. Art thou prepared to do battle?"  
  
The man's disdainful look remained as unmoving as his lips. Thor heard in her head, *You will address me by the title that I have chosen until I conquer the world. I am the Mandarin.*  
  
"I shall refer to you as the Vanquished!" Thor rushed forward, intent on wiping the smirk from his face with a powerful left hand. He remained motionless, smirking the entire time. Almost as enraged as the Hulk was dozens of levels below, Thor snarled as she unleashed a punch that would have taken a normal man's head clean off.   
  
Her blow went through the man as though he were no more substantial than a ghost. Off balance by the unexpected lack of matter, the Goddess of Thunder lost her footing and went crashing to the ground. She slowly rose to her feet, more enraged than before. "What foul sorcery is this?"  
  
The image laughed at her. Again she heard in her mind, *Thanks to my Mento-Intensifier ring, you see what I want you to see.*  
  
"Tricks," she spat out. She had little tolerance for tricksters; her half-brother had seen to that centuries ago. Now that she was warned, she countered this trick as she had Loki's by concentrating on shutting out the intruder in her mind. Sure enough, the image wavered before disappearing altogether.   
  
The sound of metal striking metal hard caught Thor's attention. She turned to see that the entryway she had used was now covered by a large door. It merged perfectly with the walls of the chamber. Had she not known better, she would have sworn there had never been an exit to the room.   
  
The sound of gears grinding above her head caught her attention. She looked above, wondering if the ceiling was going to come down in an attempt to crush her, when she saw that instead of dropping, it was retracting. Once fully in its housing, Thor saw the cause of all the smoke: three colossal engines poised directly above her. She had seen their like before on television, during the telecast's of rocket launches: the type that went into space. The engines were currently spitting out tremendous amounts of smoke, making it difficult for even her godly lungs to function. The acrid smell of some kind of fuel filled the air. Already she could hear the build-up hit its highest pitch yet and felt the temperature rise enough to make her body sweat. Orange flames began forming in all three engines, threatening to spit out a fiery death as powerful as Surter the Fire Giant could deal with his mighty sword of flame.  
  
"No," Thor gasped and brought her hammer back, intent on throwing it before she was roasted alive.  
  
*It won't save you, fool!* the voice spat in her head. *You'll just cause it to blow up. The explosion will destroy my rocket, its true, but it will still kill you, and all of your friends below as well.*  
  
It was true. Given the size of the rocket, it could very likely blow the entire fortress off the map. Thor sought an alternative way out.   
  
*Go ahead and try the doors. They're composed of a special osmium-titanium alloy that you'll never breach. This is your end, intruder!*  
  
With the last word, the engines roared fully to life.  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Down below, din of battle drowned out the roar of the rocket's launch. Despite the conflicts between Daredevil and Swordsman, as well as Captain Japan and Elektra, it was the clash between the Hulk and the A-bra-mination that filled the cavern with deafening noise. Again and again fists flew. There was no style or skill to the fight; all such trapping had disappeared within the first handful of blows. In its simplest terms, it was nothing more than a matter of two immovable objects trying to employ irresistible force against one another, neither yielding an inch.  
  
For his part, the A-bra-mination began to grow worried. Not an all-out fit of panic worried, his control over his emotions was too good for that, but rather it was the seeds of doubt that led to making an alternative set of plans when victory might not be imminent, or even if it was coming at all. Never before had he faced such naked strength or savage ferocity. This Hulk was more akin to an unrelenting force of nature than a humanoid being. He showed no signs of weariness, no signs of weakening or even acknowledging he was being beaten upon. If anything, he seemed to be getting stronger as the fight progressed, and the A-bra-mination knew that even with his gamma enhanced strength, he had upper limits. If things remained as they did, the odds were he was going to lose.   
  
The A-bra-mination decided to try something that he hoped would gain him a breather and a chance to come up with a more effective strategy against the green juggernaut. Rather than remaining standing still, he used his wings to take off.   
  
The unexpected move caused the Hulk's next blow to miss. The A-bra-mination didn't as he lashed out with his hoof-like feet from above, connecting solidly with the Hulk's head. The force of the blow shot the Hulk across the cavern like a rocket, his body firmly striking the bridge spanning the river, destroying it in the process, before continuing on to the water below. His massive form created a huge fountain of displaced water in the process, kicking it up high into the air, like a geyser.  
  
Captain Japan was facing the battle of the titans as he prevented Elektra from running him through. He saw the Hulk's headlong flight and understood what was about to happen. He leapt backward as over a ton of pure muscle collided with the bridge like the force of a dozen sticks of dynamite. The mortar and rock were no match for the humanoid rocket, and shattered under the force of the impact.   
  
Elektra was caught completely by surprise, and with the destruction of the bridge, her footing was taken from beneath her. A piece of debris from the Hulk's impact was sent upward and struck her in the head, rendering her instantly unconscious even as she began her descent into the waters below.  
  
Captain Japan managed to grab onto the remains of the far side of what had once been the bridge. He had caught the fate of his foe even in the middle of his leap. He watched as her limp form went headfirst into the water below.  
  
"She tried to kill me and the others," he told himself. It wasn't even good enough to be called a weak excuse. Sighing, he released his hold and dove into the water where he had seen the ninja vanish.  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Above, the A-bra-mination landed. He knew the water would not fend off his opponent for long, and he prepared himself for the next round fighting.  
  
His wait was not long as a green figure shot out of the water at an even greater speed than the A-bra-mination had imagined. He wasn't prepared for his opponent's velocity, and only had a split-second to catch sight of what emerged from the spray of water. Any attempt at a defense was lost as the A-bra-mination stared at what was coming for his head.  
  
Where the Hell had a green, muscle-bound piglet come from?  
  
He didn't have a chance to wonder for long as a hundred pounds of porcine might shouted out "BWEEE!" then hit him right between the eyes. The A-bra-mination staggered back, momentarily stunned. The Incredible Bweee continued his assault by leaping into the A-bra-mination's stomach with his head, momentarily winding him.   
  
Angry as he was, Bweee made the mistake of not using his superior agility and attempted to engage the A-bra-mination in hoof-to-hand combat. He leaped up onto the scaly miss-matched monster and tried batting his face with his hooves. The stubby legs were no more than an annoyance to someone of the A-bra-mination's durability. He grabbed Bweee and punched the piglet as hard as he could. The Hulk's cursed form had nowhere near the ability to absorb the punishment his humanoid body did. The blow rendered him unconscious even as he flew through the air as fast as when he had leaped out of the water.  
  
To complicate matters, or to simplify them in the case of the Lethal Legion, the piglet's flight path was directly in line with that of Daredevil. The blind adventurer sensed the hurtling form at the last moment and ducked. The move kept his head from being taken off, but the speeding porcine lightly creased Daredevil's skull. The move was enough to knock the blind youth to the ground, senseless. A hilt brought into the top of his head, courtesy of the Swordsman, finished the job, and he embraced peaceful oblivion.  
  
"Tis done," Swordsman announced. He looked around, viewing the results of the fight on both his comrades and foes. "Where is that knave, Captain Japan, and the beauteous Elektra?"  
  
The A-bra-mination grabbed one of his fallen gourds and pushed a button on the bottom of it, heating the contents up. He poured the water over his head and returned to his human form. "They fell into the river when the bridge got smashed up."   
  
Swordsman looked to the river, his eyes searching it for bodies and coming up with none. "Then we must rescue her."  
  
Tarou walked over and began to undo Speed Demon's bonds. "We'll search down river in a bit. First we do like the boss instructed and bring these guys to him. Finding that loser with the shield and that hot little piece of ass can wait. I don't want the hassle of kicking these guys' butts again."  
  
The Swordsman's eyes continued scanning the river. "But we should not leave her in that fool's clutches. There is no telling what an amorous dog like that will do to such a gentle flower."  
  
Tarou snorted at the implication. "She's so gentle she'd probably sink a knife in your gut if you laid a hand on her, and she was 'deflowered' a long time ago."  
  
Swordsman scowled at the implication. "Nay. I can could clearly tell she is chaste and pure."  
  
"Pure slut, maybe, though a hell of a lot more professional than you. And don't get your tights in an uproar. I hate to break this to you, well actually I'll enjoy it, but even if she is still alive, I'm the one that's going to get into her pants. I've known women like her and how to deal with them. And even if I wasn't around, you wouldn't stand a chance. You'd be completely outclassed."  
  
"How dare you imply that your vile ways with women are more effective than mine." Swordsman leveled his katana at Tarou.  
  
Speed Demon shouted, "Hey, guys. I think Hawkeye's starting to wake up!"  
  
The tension between the pair dissipated as Tarou walked over to Hawkeye's fallen form. A low moan was issuing from the archer's lips. "I do believe you're right," he said, then proceeded to kick the prone form in the gut. After the first two times, Hawkeye stopped moaning. Tarou added two more for good measure. "That takes care of that." He turned to Speed Demon. "Pry your buddy out of the wall and have him help out. Swordy, either pick up a body or throw yourself on your sword. And if you keep staring at me like that, your body will be joining theirs."  
  
Barely able to restrain a snarl, Swordsman reluctantly did as he was instructed, taking great care in carrying Hawkeye's unconscious form up to the fortress.   
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
The Mandarin raised the glass of wine to his lips as he watched the results of his years long handiwork reach fruition from his monitor room. The rocket's liftoff had been a complete success, despite the goddess' attempt at stopping him. In twenty minutes it would reach its proper place in orbit, and its payload would be released high above the atmosphere. Another hour for it to activate and move into its proper position after that, and it would all be over but the bargaining. Within the next forty-eight hours, the Gods above willing, he would be master of the entire planet.  
  
A loud boom resounded nearby. He placed his glass down on a nearby monitor, and stared in the direction that it had emanated. Tarou had just radioed that the Legion had captured all of the intruders.   
  
He called out, "Pantyhose, is that you? Quit horsing around, A-bra-mination, or I won't change the name I gave you. You'll be stuck with two stupid names instead of just the one you were born with."  
  
A hole erupted from one of the far walls as a hammer flew through it. Mjolnir flew back, and a singe-covered Goddess of Thunder strode in.  
  
The Mandarin maintained his composure. He lowly rose to his feet, staring at her. It seemed every inch of her body had some burns on it. Her hair was singed, her cape was in ruins, and her costume had holes in it in some very near revealing places. He shifted his attention uncomfortably away from the flesh showing near the chest area and reminded himself what was at stake. "I know it's cliché, but exactly how did you survive that little fire-trap of mine?"  
  
Closer to a snarl rather than an answer, Thor said, "I did smash mine way out through the walls of thy inept trap."  
  
"They were two feet thick."  
  
"Indeed. It did take me two blows to set mineself free. T'was a near thing, to be certain, just as thy well earned beating is going to be a near thing to death as well."  
  
The Mandarin smiled. "I applaud your resilience. I shall enjoy discovering the source of your power and subverting it to my cause." He undid the catch on his purple satin cape, allowing it to pool behind him on the floor. Unencumbered, he stood before his opponent. "I deem you a worthy opponent to do combat with."  
  
"A pity I cannot say the same. However I have no choice but to sully mine hands with thou." She stalked forward.   
  
"Have no fears, then. I have no intention of allowing you to lay a single finger upon me." He raised both hands and pointed them at Thor.  
  
Sensing something amiss, Thor ducked as stream of fire emitted from one of the rings on his left hand. Having been burned quite enough for one day, she ducked, and heard the flames roar as they came into contact with the rock of the wall.   
  
However by ducking instead of throwing her body aside, she was unable to evade the white beam that emitted from a different ring on the same hand. She felt something congeal around her legs, and found her legs and lower torso encased in ice. Rendered temporarily immobile, a red beam emitted from a ring on his other hand and struck her high in the chest. The impact was tremendous, hurting her as it knocked her over. The ice prevented her from sprawling but left her as immobile as a turtle turned over on it shell.  
  
The Mandarin made a clucking noise with his tongue. "I expected a much greater challenge from you."  
  
Anger gathered Thor's focus and with a burst of muscle she shattered her icy shackles. It took a much greater effort than it should have, and it was only then she realized the toll her body had taken. She had avoided most of the rocket's flames, but not all of them, and it would take even her godly form time to heal. Time, the one commodity she did not have.   
  
Thor gritted her teeth, firming her resolve. This was no time for doubt. The key to victory for her forces was before her. This mere mortal sought to defeat the most powerful of goddesses. Thor had not known defeat since her rebirth, and she had no desire to taste it now. Certainly not in the face of this pompous fool who fancied himself a leader of men when he was only fit to command dogs like those of his so-called Lethal Legion.  
  
She hurled Mjolnir at him, but he twisted out of its way. He displayed surprising agility for one whose power she had assumed resided in his rings. He rushed at her almost as quickly as her hammer was returning to her. The fool was rushing towards defeat if he sought to engage her in physical combat. He might have postponed the inevitable by staying out of reach with his rings, but now he was finished. It would take but one, two blows at the most for her godly might to dispatch him.  
  
Just as the hammer returned to her grasp, the Mandarin brought his foot up to kick her. At the last moment she thought she saw it glow with a nimbus of energy. The kick hit with far more force than any normal man could bear, staggering her for a moment.   
  
Rather than press the advantage, the Mandarin stood in what was clearly a martial arts stance. "Surprised? My power resides not solely in my rings. They are but a tool. The true source of power is the blood of dragons that runs through my veins. You have spirit. I offer you a chance to save yourself a beating and pledge your life and abilities to me. You'll find I can be a generous master."  
  
"I have no master, and thy blood will run in rivers before I ever submit to the likes of you!"   
  
Thor swung at him with her fist, but he dodged the blow. The nimbus of power surrounded his arms and legs as he lashed out with a chop to her neck and then one to her elbow. Despite her own godly durability, she felt pain from the blows. Almost out of reflex she lashed out with a backhand.   
  
Expecting his strikes to incapacitate rather than merely cause pain, the Mandarin was only partially able to evade the blow. A part of the side of her hand caught him in the chest, and he was hurled across the room. Even rolling with the blow, he still suffered more pain than he had in years.   
  
"Die now!" He raised his right hand up and employed his deadliest ring of all: the disintegrator.  
  
Thor ducked the beam as it arched in a short line right where her head had been. The beam winked out, and she spun around to see the results of the silent blast. There was a foot long trail the height of a nickel cutting a groove clear through the wall. And the wall beyond it, and the wall beyond that one as well. It was then she realized that the back of her neck felt revealed. She placed her hand behind it, only to discover something was missing.  
  
"Thou didst destroy mine hair!" she raged.   
  
"I was aiming for thine neck!" the Mandarin mocked. And he would have aimed at it again, save that the disintegrator only had enough power to be used once an hour. Still, he had nine other means of destruction at his fingertips. It was only a question of which one would spell the goddess' doom.   
  
Before the Mandarin could decide, Thor spun her hammer around in a circle above her head. Having seen what the weapon had done to his wall and how fast it was, he was cautious as he kept his eyes transfixed on the hammer, trying to time a leap to avoid it once it was thrown.   
  
Only Thor didn't throw it, instead choosing to continue swinging it in a circle. By the fourth swing it seemed to have taken on a life of its own, and the winds it produced were unnatural.   
  
A wall of air, invisible to the Mandarin's naked eye, struck him, pinning him to the wall. He felt the air washing over him time and time again, and saw several objects flying in fast circles. It felt like tendrils of air reached down his throat and into his lungs, sucking the air out. Within seconds the Mandarin felt on the verge of passing out thanks to the goddess' vortex. He was pinned so effectively that he couldn't even bring his rings to bear.  
  
No! He would not lose. Not when he was so close to victory. Thor had been weakened by the rocket's engines and his own rings. She could barely stand. He was the master of the world. He would not lose to a mere woman. There was one ring that he could use, its abilities tied to the so-called 'Darkforce dimension' and not directed in a beam as so many of the others were. He activated it.  
  
The world went dark around Thor. Surprised by the absolute darkness surrounding her, she lost concentration and the vortex responded by lessening its ferocity.   
  
With the gale relenting slightly, the Mandarin acted. Being granted the ability to see through the darkness created by his ring, he brought his left hand up and released a short blast of compressed air from his Vortex ring. While it lacked the raw power of the maelstrom the goddess had summoned, it was still an effective offensive weapon. Struck by the blast, Thor lost her footing and stopped spinning the hammer around, sprawling to the ground. Her body ached from the effort of producing the whirlwind as it did from the beam she had been hit with.   
  
She returned to her feet, having to feel the floor to get a sense of where things were. The darkness was absolute, sucking out every hint of light. It was worse than the time she had visited Hela in the icy domain of death, at least from a visual standpoint.   
  
"Where art thUrk!" A strike found its way to Thor's throat. To one of more mortal qualities, the blow would have broken their windpipe. For the goddess, it served to choke her and prevent her from gaining air.  
  
A stone-shattering kick met the base of her spine. She fell to her knees, legs rendered temporarily paralyzed. "Where art thou?!" she gasped out.  
  
"Would you like to see?" Darkness was replaced with light. Not a soft gentle glow, but the glare of a thousand flashbulbs being set off at once directly in front of her eyes. She recoiled, visual senses overloaded. She covered her eyes, and still it seemed as though the whiteness was permanently burned into her retinas.  
  
She felt the air crackle with power behind her. Despite the pain, exhaustion, and blindness, she turned in the direction that the power was emanating from, standing proudly.   
  
The blindness prevented her from seeing the huge blue glow that had formed around the Mandarin. It crackled, and filled the air with power, dancing along the floor and ceiling above him. "This farce ends now. Musk Dynasty Final Attack: Roaring Dragon Bite!"   
  
The blue coalesced into the head of a dragon, then shot forward and engulfed Thor's form as a blast of pure chi slammed into her. Traveling in the energy dragon's wake, beams of fire, electricity, air, ice, and kinetic force slammed into Thor, adding to the power brought against her. All hit squarely. The goddess of Thunder was blown through five walls before the laws of gravity fully claimed her body and it came to a stop.   
  
The blue left his form, and the Mandarin stood as proudly as when the goddess had first burst into his control chamber. He walked easily, almost lazily, as he approached Thor's fallen form. Standing directly above her, he gazed downward at this bruised, burned, defeated, yet ultimately proud mountain of a woman.   
  
By all rights he should kill her. She was incredibly dangerous. Even if he bound her in steel and technology, should she fight her way free she could cause him problems, potentially kill him with the awesome power she wielded. The fight had gone his way, but he held no illusions. She had been softened up in his trap, and still the fight had not been easy. He would not have looked forward to clashing with her on more even terms.   
  
The safest course of action would be to remove the potential threat by killing her now, yet he resisted the urge to place his impact ring next to her temple and pulverize her brain into pulp. Looking upon her with a more dispassionate eye, when she was not trying to smash him into a fleshy pile of jelly, he found her physically attractive, despite her rather brutish demeanor. There was a sort of fire and spirit about her that seemed to entice his senses and tantalize his desires. His contact with members of the opposite sex was limited, but instinctively he knew there was something about this woman that made her more desirable than most he would meet.  
  
There were other factors to consider as well. Now that he was finally on the verge of achieving his decade long ambition of ruling the world, there was a future to plan for, specifically, the important matter of progeny. The one problem with the bloodline of the Dragon Clan of the Musk was that the women chosen as mates, unless they were also of the Dragon Clan, rarely survived childbirth. Even the few times they dared breed with other powerful Musk bloodlines, like those of the Tiger, the women rarely survived the experience. Had the men of the Dragon Clan been like normal humans, or even other members of the Musk, the answer would be to merely acquire another woman, but something in the Dragon blood made acquiring a second mate repellent, even if it was only for the purpose of bearing more offspring. Less than a handful of the Mandarin's ancestors had overcome the instinct and mated with another woman, and even then they did not do it a third time. That was one of the reasons there had been so few members of the Dragon Clan, and why he was the last.  
  
However, Thor represented all sorts of new possibilities that the Mandarin had never considered. If this being before him truly was a goddess --and since there was such things as dragons, why not gods?-- then a woman of such a divine nature might not suffer the limitations other women did. Judging by her tremendous strength, surely she would prove durable enough to produce more than one heir. And not only was there the possibility of multiple offspring, but there was the added bonus of imbuing the dragon bloodline with that of divinity itself. The Dragon Clan would become celestial beings in every sense of the word  
  
The Mandarin steepled his hands before his eyes, keeping his stare riveted on the goddess. This was a matter that required some consideration. Yes it did. Thor would remain alive as long as he could manage. If his schemes played out as he thought they should, he would rule the world and ensure his clan's control of it forever. This Thor was a gift from the gods in every sense of the word.  
  
A laugh erupted from Herb's mouth and echoed throughout the halls of the Musk Fortress. The world would be his to rule as he pleased, and it would remain so from now until the end of time.  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Special thanks to Gary Kleppe for punning for me the 'A-bra-mination's name.   
  
Also thanks to prereaders  
Gary Ee.   
William Morse  
Christopher Horton  
  
And  
L.S. McGill  
Brian Randall  
Michael Chasse  
David Johnstone  
Ragun Moody  
Miashara  
and many others. 


	10. Ten Rings to Rule Them All Part III

Avenging Chapter 10  
Ten Rings to Rule Them All III  
  
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Standard Disclaimer: Various anime characters are owned by their respective creators. The super heroes are owned by Marvel Comics Company  
  
When last we left our heroes: The attempt to attack the Musk fortress failed. Daredevil, Hulk, Hawkeye, Iron Rose and Thor had all been captured. The fate of the Wasp and Giant Man remains unknown, and Captain Japan was separated from the others as he tried to rescue the assassin, Elektra from drowning.  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
The man once known as Herb, but now known to the world as the Mandarin, stared at the woman he had just captured. His imagination swirled with the potential this 'Thor' presented. He was so lost in thought he was unaware of the arrival of his minions until Tarou cleared his throat.  
  
"Nice work, Boss," Tarou said, lacking his trademark haughtiness.  
  
"Spare me your platitudes," the Mandarin snapped, looking over the quartet of prisoners Tarou, Power Man, Speed Demon, and Swordsman had retrieved. "Why are you carrying that green pig?"  
  
His employer's rebuke irritated Tarou enough that he chose to answer in an equally curt voice. "Some big green monster got dunked in Jusenkyou. Unlike me, his curse was not beneficial. We can carve him into ham hocks later."  
  
The Mandarin passed a hand over the piglet. One of his rings glowed with a light green tint. "Hmm. Gamma irradiated, like yourself. This will bear further investigation." He turned to the others. "Tell me, who are they and what can they do?"  
  
Speed Demon spun around so the prisoner draped over his shoulder could be seen by his boss. "His name's Hawkeye. No super powers. Just got a bunch of trick arrows."  
  
"He took you out," Tarou jibed.  
  
"He's darn good with the arrows," Speed Demon replied, showing no sign of embarrassment.  
  
Swordsman showed off his prisoner with exaggerated flair. "This foul knave goes by the name of Daredevil. He is deceitful, ill-tempered, does not know his place, dared to attack me, who is clearly his better, and is vastly inferior to my own tremendous skills."  
  
The Mandarin looked to Tarou.  
  
"Guy keeps hidden weapons in his costume. No other super powers," Tarou translated.  
  
Power Man took his turn with his prisoner. "Speed Demon said she's the Iron Rose. I don't know how large her tits are since this armor's so clunky."  
  
"I don't care about her breast size!" the Mandarin snapped. "Does all of her power come from her armor?"  
  
"Yep. She almost knocked me out, and that was after Swordsman fought her. Of course I had just fought Thor and the pig right before, so I wasn't feeling too great."  
  
The Mandarin considered that. "Armor that powerful might mean some of the technology could be potentially useful."  
  
"Want me to peel it off her?" Power Man offered.  
  
The Mandarin shook his head. "No, that would destroy the armor. Removing it now would be ill advised. It might be booby trapped."  
  
"Excellent!" Power Man and Speed Demon said as one.  
  
"That means it might explode! It has nothing to do with her breasts, you idiots!"  
  
Both visibly deflated.  
  
"I shall investigate it later. I'll leave all of them alive for now, imprisoned. Each one is potentially useful to me. If they prove otherwise, or I find them tiresome, I will dispatch them later. Now... wait a minute. Where's Elektra?"  
  
"She fell into the underground river with Captain Japan. That was the last we saw of either of them," Speed Demon explained.  
  
"I insisted we search for them immediately, but our so-called team leader," Swordsman shot a glare towards Tarou, "insisted we come here with the prisoners first. Another sign he is ill fit to lead. There is no telling what harm might befall the beauteous Elektra in the hands of such a cad as that Captain person."  
  
"They both fell in the water and are probably dead," Tarou assured his leader, shooting Swordsman a scathing look.  
  
"I want confirmation," the Mandarin insisted. "Mint, Lime-"  
  
"Ah, ah," Speed Demon warned with a wag of his finger.  
  
The Mandarin rolled his eyes. "Speed Demon, Power Man, secure the prisoners. The archer and red man can be placed in standing shackles. Strap down the armored one in the titanium bonds and use the electric nullifier on the armor, the one we use for twitchy Centurion robots. Since it's only armor, attaching it to the head should render it completely immobile. Remember to attach it to the head, not the body."  
  
"Right," both said.  
  
"The pig can be placed in the somnia gas chamber." He turned to the goddess on the floor. "This one is of particular value to me. The neural paralysis table should immobilize her in similar fashion to her armored comrade. Make sure she's securely fastened to the table. I remember the mutant bear that slipped out of the bonds before you activated the neural paralysis."  
  
"We'll be careful," Speed Demon promised.  
  
The Mandarin turned to Tarou and Swordsman. "You two are going to locate the Captain and our missing assassin. Bring the man to me alive as well." He turned to exit the room.  
  
"What if he's already dead?" Tarou asked.  
  
The Mandarin stopped at the doorway to the room, "Then bring back his body."   
  
Once his employer had departed, Tarou finally allowed himself to snicker. "Now that, can easily be arranged."  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Liquid dreams filled her mind as she found herself sinking into an eternal ocean of blood. An ocean she had created over the severed flesh of her assigned targets. She was suspended in crimson ether that carried on into infinity. There was no up or down, left or right. There was just the blood. Slowly she felt her lungs crushed under the weight of her sins. There were no voices to taunt her, they had all been silenced at the end of a blade, but the sanguine fluid that had been spilled would stand in place of her victims' cries of revenge. She tried to keep the liquid out, closing her mouth, but the blood seemed to seep into her body through her pores, filling her lungs, forcing the life-giving air out so that she might drown in her sins.   
  
Her consciousness began to wither and die, and she felt her soul being sucked out. Death had come to visit her. Once dead the Hand would consume her, as it did with all those who failed, and use what remained of her immortal soul in their plans anew. The Hand was greater than any one member. The Hand was eternal. No one left the Hand. Once accepted, you belonged to them even unto death. And beyond. She would forever be a part of something she hated more than anything else in the world.  
  
And then there was light. And pain. Pain from within, worse than any she had felt since killing her best and only friend. She vomited fluid, and what felt like most of her vital organs, and still the retching continued as her stomach tried reflexively throwing out what had already been emptied.  
  
Eventually the nausea passed, and Elektra collapsed on her back. She had to regain her bearings. Pain was accepted, and she forced her mind to look beyond the discomfort and evaluate her situation. She took stock of her surroundings. She was laying flat on the ground, her body still convulsing mildly. She was wet, soaked almost as much inside her body as out. She could hear the movement of someone nearby. An enemy. All people were assumed enemies until they were judged otherwise.   
  
Her body was in poor shape, damaged temporarily. And like any other weapon that was damaged, she would have to rely on other tools until it was repaired. Slowly her hand moved towards her sash where she kept a stiletto, garrote, and shurikens concealed within the folds of the cloth.  
  
They were all gone.  
  
"You're awake."  
  
Elektra's eyes flashed open. She expected someone to lunge at her with blade, bullet, or flesh. It would not be the first time such had happened, waking just in time to counter a fatal attack. But instead of a violent killer intent on her death, she saw a short, busty girl with flame colored hair sticking out from the top of a mask wrapped around her face. Her costume was red and white, with a rising sun emblazoned across both it and the shield affixed to her arm.  
  
A full recollection of the events that led up to that moment came to Elektra. She turned to see the flow of water beside her. She was resting on a rocky projection next to the river. It formed what was almost a crude pathway, judging by the way the rock continued on upriver and out of sight. An odd phosphorescent glow seemed to emanate from the rock walls themselves. Obviously she had been pulled out of the river and onto dry land.  
  
"You kept me from drowning," she said warily to her savior.  
  
The redhead nodded. "Yeah, you took a nasty one straight to the temple. You were out cold. It's lucky for you I dove in after you."  
  
"Why?" Once the word had left her lips, Elektra realized how irrelevant the question was. The action was done, the reasons meant nothing. This girl had her own designs, and an obvious use for Elektra, or else she would never have saved the assassin.   
  
The girl looked at Elektra as though she was the most stupid person in the world. "Well geez, I couldn't let you die."  
  
The simplicity of the statement, as though the girl was saying 'Of course the sun rises in the East,' unsettled Elektra. "You mean you did not save me so I would be indebted to you?" she asked.  
  
The redhead seemed confused by the nature of the question. "Ah, no. That would be a pretty stupid way of doing things. Heck, I wouldn't be able to keep track of all the favors people owed me if I expected everyone I saved to return the favor."  
  
Now Elektra understood: Magnanimity. A useless gesture fools engaged in. To give something without the expectation of receiving something in return was a waste of effort. Obviously this girl believed herself some sort of Samaritan whose duty it was to protect others.   
  
But still, despite the obvious foolishness, Elektra felt strangely moved by the gesture. No one had ever done anything for her without the expectation of receiving something in return, at least for long as she could remember. Everything the Hand gave had a string attached. When she went undercover, she would frequently be romanced with the intention of someone bedding her. There was always some form of compensation involved. But this girl desired nothing. It was most... confusing.  
  
"Where are my weapons?" Elektra asked. She felt naked without them, and was suspicious of the redhead appearing out of nowhere to save her. It seemed too good to be true.  
  
"I took care of them. I didn't want you to try to run me through aga... I mean like you tried to do to my partner."  
  
"Partner?" Elektra looked the girl over. How could she have been so blind? Obviously from the way the girl was dressed and the shield she bore she would have been partnered to Captain Japan. "I do not recall seeing you in the battle..." Elektra trailed off, unsure of how to address her savior.  
  
"I was... ah, late getting there. And the name's Bucky."  
  
The girl was lying about the former, and very poorly. What did she have to hide? Elektra looked at her more closely. The uniform bore signs of combat. There was a large tear in the front where the material had been sliced open and the faint redness of a fresh cut below that. The slash was long enough, and in such an area, that the girl's ample bosom clearly showed; a fact she seemed unaware of.   
  
Noticing Elektra's stare, the redhead's eyes followed the gaze. Seeing what was poking out, she quickly muttered a curse, and proceeded to tear her top off, using it to tie around her breasts in a very tattered bikini top style. "No one's going to take me seriously with my belly button showing," Bucky grumbled.  
  
Elektra was not as concerned about Bucky's appearance as she with the wound. The injury was identical to the one she had given the Captain himself. A coincidence? Hardly. Elektra stood up, her eyes seeming to bore holes through Bucky. There was no way the redhead could be the Captain in disguise. The physiological differences made it impossible. Although looking more closely, she could see the uniform was actually loose on the girl. Had she switched clothes with the Captain? Why? She was not trying to impersonate him.   
  
Elektra reviewed the facts she knew. The last thing she remembered was being on the bridge, something shattering it, and being hit in the head by a stray piece of granite. The next thing she knew, she had been saved by a girl who looked similar to the man Elektra had been fighting, dressed the same as him, and had an identical wound. The only problem was gender. So what was the solution?  
  
The water!  
  
The memory came back to Elektra, one long forgotten in a childhood that she had forsaken so long ago. If she remembered the tales correctly, there was indeed something that could change a person's gender. And cold water was the trigger. She pointed at the girl and said, "Jusenkyou?"   
  
The shock on Bucky's face was evident. "Yeah, how'd you know about it?"  
  
The past. For all of Elektra's efforts to bury it, it had come surging to the fore. She had not reflected on her childhood for years. Memories of a dead past only served to slow one down. Bucky's question, in conjunction with this curse told as a tale from her youth, elicited feelings in Elektra that she did not want to remember. "It is none of your concern."  
  
Bucky gripped Elektra firmly by the shoulders. "Come on, you got to tell me. I need a cure for this."  
  
"It was only a fable I heard when I was very young. I did not believe the place truly existed. I am unaware of any cure." A lie, but one delivered flawlessly.  
  
Bucky did indeed believe the explanation as her shoulders visibly slumped in defeat. But then a resolve seemed to settle over her. "All right, so now you know the truth. What are you going to do about it? Are we going to have to fight again?"  
  
Elektra shook her head. "I am indebted to you. You saved my life when I would have drowned. I will not raise my hand against you or signal an alarm."  
  
Bucky seemed visibly relieved. "Okay. Now I gotta get back and rescue my friends. Well, they ain't really my friends. I only met most of them once before today. But that's beside the point."  
  
"I shall go with you. It's a matter of honor," Elektra said firmly.  
  
Bucky shrugged. "Okay. They're a pretty tough bunch. I can take them on my own, if my buddies haven't beaten them already. But without me, they might have more than they can handle. We'd better sneak back, just to be on the safe side. You got any idea on how to get back?"  
  
Elektra pointed upriver along the crude pathway that went up and out of sight. "Following this as far as it can go would be the best. If there is an interruption in the path, we will make do as best as we can."  
  
"Works for me," Bucky agreed.  
  
With the matter settled, the two began to walk back.  
  
Xxxxxxxxxx  
  
A tiny pair of eyes fluttered open. There was darkness with light around the edges of it. Groggily the girl reached upward, towards the darkness. She was rewarded with the cool feel of metal at her fingertips. Instinctively, she pushed forward, trying to ward off the darkness. She was rewarded by the piece of metal scrap, from her perspective nearly fifteen meters in length, go flying away from her.  
  
Wasp squinted at the bright light of the sun. She covered her eyes until they had a chance to adjust to the sunlight.  
  
She surveyed the scene around her. There was debris scattered all around. It took her a moment to recall what had happened. She had drifted off to sleep nestled among the landing gear, Doctor Tofu (no, Giant Man when he was a superhero) still babbling incoherently, when there was the sound of a loud explosion and the sense of plummeting very quickly. Wasp had recovered enough to rise to her feet as she heard further sounds of metal tearing and the falling continued. She had managed to grab onto Giant Man, used her sting to blow a hole through the quinjet's landing gear doors, and flew out as the vehicle headed straight for the ground. She had barely enough time to stop her decent, especially with her super hero partner cradled in her arms, before crashing into the ground It was fortunate she retained her full strength at Wasp height, else both she and her partner would have met a rather grisly demise.   
  
It was just as she had leveled off, not more than a handful of meters above the ground, when the quinjet crashed, exploding and sending debris everywhere. One large piece in particular had headed towards her...  
  
...And that was it. She couldn't remember anything else. Perhaps the debris had struck her, and she had fallen to earth with Giant Man...  
  
Giant Man! She had completely forgotten him. "Giant Man, where are you?!" she ccalled out, but there was no response. She cried out again, but still there was no answer. Wasp began to panic. What if something bad had happened to him? What if he had been hurt because Kasumi Tendou had gotten it in her head she wanted to be a superhero? What if he had died? Could she forgive herself?  
  
Yes, she could. Doctor Tofu wanted to help the world as best as he could, and he would never want Kasumi to give up her new dreams in which she helped others, as well as living the exciting life of an adventurer. There were risks involved, but didn't she take a risk every time she prepared puffer fish for the family? Why, given the number of people who died in car accidents, she was still more likely to die crossing the street, even if she gave up superheroeing.   
  
"I will carry on in your name, Doctor Tofu," she swore.  
  
"What's wrong with my name?" The voice came from under a piece of metal located to the right of Wasp.  
  
Stunned by the unexpected response, Wasp flew over, picked up the piece of metal and tossed it aside. Underneath lay her partner, only now sitting up, clearly dazed. His uniform appeared a bit dirty, but no external wounds showed. "Oh, you're not dead after all."  
  
Giant Man winced. "You don't have to sound disappointed, Ka... Ka.. Kasumi." His eyes fully glazed over, a state of insentience far worse than when he had first started to come around.  
  
"Oh dear, it's happening again." Wasp grabbed one of the metal cylinders on Giant Man's belt and detached it. She pointed the nozzle at him, and hit a button located on the bottom. A stream of green gas enveloped the upper portions of his body, dissipating almost immediately. The growth gas served to negate the effects of the shrinking one he had used earlier, and allowed Giant Man to live at least partially up to his moniker as his form grew from a handful of centimeters to the height of a normal man.   
  
No longer in his Kasumi inflicted haze, Giant Man regained his bearings and looked around. "Where are we? This doesn't look like the airport."  
  
"It's not. The heroes' plane we were stowing away in crashed. We barely made it out in time." Wasp went airborne and flew up until she was eye level with Giant Man.  
  
As before, her diminutive size seemed to dull the effect her presence had on Giant Man. "What about the others? Did they survive as well?"   
  
"Oh my. I didn't even think about them. I just woke up a minute ago and was worried about you."  
  
Giant Man began to blush, and laughed nervously. "You were worried about me?"  
  
Wasp seemed unaware of the change in demeanor. "Yes, but since you're okay, I'm not concerned anymore. We need to check on the others."  
  
That shook Giant Man out of his stupor. He grew to a height of eight meters and looked around. "I see the main wreckage over there." He pointed over a small mound of boulders around the hillock. "Let's investigate."  
  
They easily made their way over the rocks and to the crash site. Hesitantly, they began to search through the wreckage. Their initial fears of finding charred corpses were allayed as it quickly became evident there were no bodies to find.  
  
"They probably escaped like we did. It's not surprising. They are super heroes, after all," Wasp said.  
  
"But that leaves the problem of where they, and we, are." Giant Man surveyed his surroundings again. "We seem to be in the middle of a mountain chain. I don't think it's in Japan, though. They look wrong."  
  
Wasp took a deep breath of mountain air. "It smells too clean and pure to be Japan. Maybe we're in China, or even the United States."  
  
"Could be."  
  
Wasp carefully considered their situation. "Why don't we go to the top of the mountain? It's not that far up. We'll get a better view from up there and might be able to get our bearings. We can figure out where we are, or better yet, where the others are. Once we find one or the other, we'll have a better idea of what we should do next."  
  
"Sounds like a good idea to me." Giant Man looked up the mountain side. There were no easy paths, but at least this part of the mountain wasn't steep and had large ledges that would make climbing easier. Still, he was grateful he had taken up rock climbing as a way of staying fit a few years back. Wasp flew alongside, staying with him rather than darting on ahead. At the rate he was going, they would be at the top in no time.  
  
xxxxxxxxxx  
  
Speed Demon and Power Man made their way through one of the long stone corridors of the fortress that served as their base, their two remaining prisoners in tow. Actually, Power Man was doing all of the towing, while Speed Demon walked alongside him. The big man had the world's largest piglet tucked under one arm and the Goddess of Thunder slung over the other.  
  
"Hold on a second." Power Man placed both his burdens on the ground, then pulled up his tights.  
  
"What's wrong?"  
  
"My outfit is a little loose. I think I lost some weight."  
  
Speed Demon shook his head sadly. "That wouldn't happen if we had uniforms made out of unstable molecules. They fit you snugly no matter how big or small you are. It's like the ultimate spandex. Too bad the Mandarin is too cheap to buy some for us."  
  
"Yeah, you think with the big missile and satellite system he built, he could drop a few yuan on us to get us some decent clothing. I mean, sure, the material the old Spider Clan made is awful tough, but it itches something fierce."  
  
Speed Demon scratched his crotch. "I know what you mean. After we get our own countries, I'm sure we can afford to buy lots of outfits for ourselves. Now let's drop these guys off. The holding cells are just around the corner."  
  
Power Man shouldered his burden again and set off down the corridor. His concentration was fixed so firmly forward, he neglected to notice the hammer that had been dangling from Thor's wrist by its strap and come loosed and had fallen off when he set her down.  
  
The pair turned the corner and entered the holding room. Unlike the stony corridors of the fortress, the room was completely encased in metal. Computers lined one of the walls. A number of large glass cubes stood alongside each other, while the third side to the chamber bore several flat tables. Huge metal restraints that could be snapped into place were at each one's sides, and odd-looking helmets rested at the head of each table. A number of wires led from the helmets to one of the banks of computers along the wall.  
  
Speed Demon said, "Let's hurry up. I'm hungry. I'll put the pig in the somnia gas chamber. You put the girl on the table."  
  
Reminded of the fact they had not eaten since their return from Japan, Power Man roughly tossed Thor upon the table and locked the bands into position. As each locked down, it tightened until it created a form fitting bond across the unconscious woman. They were firm, but not tight enough to cut off circulation. He then placed the helmet on her head. Like the bands, it too tightened until it formed a perfect seal on the top of her skull.  
  
Speed Demon's task was simpler. He tossed the pig into one of the clear cubes, and closed the access door to it. With that he walked over to a console located on the largest computer of all, and punched a button. Red wisps of the Mandarin's somnia gas filled the chamber. Seeing Power Man had Thor strapped down, he turned a second dial and was rewarded with a hum of power emitting from the helmet.  
  
"Everything seems to be working fine. The gas will keep the pig asleep and the neural table will prevent any higher brain activity, like waking up, from Thor," Speed Demon said as he looked over the control panel. "Let's go eat."  
  
Power Man nodded in agreement. As the duo exited the room, the larger man said, "Hey, Mint."  
  
"Speed Demon."  
  
"Fine, Speed Demon," Power Man said with a touch of irritability. "You don't suppose the boss created those chambers to keep us in line if he thought we were going to turn on him or something, do you?"  
  
"Not us. Probably if Pantyhose doesn't like his new name or something," Speed Demon assured him.   
  
"Oh, that makes me feel better." They were halfway down the corridor when Power Man followed up with an, "Oh, shoot!"  
  
"What?"  
  
"We were so busy doing what the boss said, we missed a perfect opportunity to touch Thor's breasts."  
  
"We could go back."  
  
Power Man considered that. "We'll eat first, then grab later."  
  
"Good idea. We need to get our priorities straight, after all." The two continued on.  
  
And in the chamber they had left behind moments before, the sixtieth second had passed since Thor had last been in contact with her hammer. She disappeared in a flash and was replaced by an ordinary Japanese teenager. The helmet slipped off the smaller head. The bonds around the body also remained at their previous setting. Akane Tendou's form was so much smaller that that bands did not even touch her as she lay motionless on the table.  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Bucky continued up the path along the river. It was almost as though it served as some sort of access way, which seemed impossible. Why would anyone create a walkway alongside an underground river that led only down into the earth? It wasn't even part of the fortress proper. Just a crude underground passageway carved out of the earth by the flow of water. Still, she was not one to look down on a gift handed to her. With luck they could travel most of the way on foot. Hopefully the idiots in the fortress either thought she was dead or were too scared to come back.   
  
At this point she was assuming her friends had lost the fight. Bucky was fairly certain they would have sought her out immediately if they had been victorious. That lot might have been a little rough around the edges, but they did seem the good sort. She wouldn't have been difficult to find. The Iron Rose probably had some sort of gizmo that could track her, while Thor could have flown down the length of the river to spot them. But there was nothing.  
  
Trying to take her mind off the potentially bad situation, Bucky decided to strike up a conversation with her companion. "So, how'd you end up working for the bad guys?"  
  
Elektra shrugged. "They hired me. It's just a job."  
  
Bucky looked at her as though she had grown a third eye. "How can you be so blasé about it? I mean, they're bad guys. They want to hurt people and stuff." Suddenly she realized she didn't know what these people were up to. She had gone after them in the beginning because they were attacking the police, and later, because they had defeated her. But she had no idea of what their motives truly were.  
  
If Elektra was moved by Bucky's concern, she did not show it. In a casual voice, she said, "I am of the Hand. I obey their wishes. They were contacted by the Mandarin, who was in need of enforcers to protect his fortress from attack, obviously a wise choice. I was selected to aid him. It is as simple as that."  
  
"But that's wrong! You can't hurt people just because you're told to. You've gotta act responsible and protect others. It's the duty of the strong to protect the weak and stand up for them."   
  
Elektra shook her head. "So naive. You actually believe that mindless idiocy you're babbling about."  
  
"Of course I do." It took Bucky a moment to realize what she had said. "I mean it's not idiocy or babble. It's the way you got to do things to make the world a great place."  
  
"You cannot change the world anymore than you can change human nature. Society is composed of two types of people. The strong and the weak. The strong prey upon the weak. That is the way of things."  
  
"That's crazy. You can't live life like that. Everyone would be miserable. You gotta try and help others. Wouldn't you like it better if everyone treated you like I did?"  
  
Elektra tried to say something, but there was hesitation in her voice. She shook her head fiercely, as though to clear it of some errant thought. "An ideology like yours is stupid. Try to live your life like that, and you'll pay for your naiveté someday."  
  
Bucky was about to argue further, but thought better of it. She had more urgent matters on hand than trying to explain to a super villain why her entire method of thinking was wrong. There would be time enough for that later, when she turned her in to the proper authorities.   
  
Bucky concentrated on the path in front of her. Just as she was about to turn a corner following yet another bend in the seemingly endless river, two figures came from around it first.   
  
There was a moment of bewilderment between the two pairs. After a moment, Tarou, the first to recover, said, "Well, well, well. What have we here? I go out to find a putz, and instead I find a babe." He smiled lasciviously at Bucky. "What's your name? Cleavage Girl?"   
  
Swordsman seemed equally as pleased at the sight before him. "How kind. The goddess of fate has bestowed her favor upon me. I set out on a quest to find of one vision of loveliness, only to be confronted by two instead. Oh joyous rapture!" He held his sword up and pointed it to the Heavens, or more correctly, towards the ceiling, since he was currently underground.  
  
Tarou continued smirking. "Judging by the costume, what there is of it, she looks like a groupie of Captain Weenie. Hey honey, why don't I show you what a real man can do with a hot little number like you?"  
  
"You lousy pervert!" Bucky railed. Keeping her eyes on the two opponents, she said over her shoulder. "Keep behind me. I'll protect you."  
  
Bucky mentally planned a course of attack that would take her between her two opponents, in the hopes they would get caught in their own crossfire, when she felt a hard blow strike a single point in the back of her neck. She wanted to turn around, but instead she felt her body grow limp.   
  
A voice from behind her said, "I told you you'd pay for that naiveté someday."  
  
Muscles not responding in the slightest, Bucky slumped to the ground, turning as she fell so that she landed on her back. Her vision began to grow faint along the edges as Elektra came into view. "Why?" was all she managed to get out as darkness began to claim her.  
  
A snort of derision came from Elektra. "I'm an assassin, you idiot. Stabbing people in the back is what I do."  
  
And then the world went black.  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Tarou came closer to stand over the girl. He continued leering at her as he spoke to Elektra. "Where'd you find this one, and where's Captain Jerkwad?"  
  
Elektra was about to explain the Captain's situation, something Tarou could appreciate since once she had mentally reviewed the fight she realized that he too had a Jusenkyou curse, when she found herself saying instead, "The Captain is dead. Drowned. His body washed away. The girl is his partner. She stumbled upon me as I pulled myself from the river. She was unaware of the Captain's fate, and assumed, I was aligned with her. I was still weak from nearly drowning, so I pretended to be on her side until you showed up."  
  
Swordsman said, "It is good to see you did not suffer overmuch from the base attack the foul Captain unleashed upon you. It is for the best that he met his demise, else I would smite him myself for daring to try to harm you."  
  
Tarou ignored his comrade's excessively flowery speech. He kept his eyes riveted on Bucky. "I'll tell you guys what. Swordy, why don't you take Elektra back and go over things with the boss, since he'll want you to confirm Flag Boy's dead? I'll ah... secure this prisoner and catch up to you guys later."  
  
Elektra saw that Swordsman was too preoccupied with being allowed to travel with her to understand what Tarou was really implying. She had seen that look before on dozens of faces, both on her opponents and occasionally on her fellow Hand members. Instead of being amused at the idea of the arrogant clod accidentally raping a man --a fact that would probably drive him into a frenzy-- Elektra found herself feeling inexplicably protective of the girl. "She's my prisoner."   
  
"Don't worry about it. I'll be responsible for her. You've been through a lot and need a break," Tarou insisted in a smooth voice.  
  
"I said she's mine." The assassin reached down and picked the girl up, effortlessly tossing the burden over her shoulder. As she turned, she noticed Tarou shooting her a murderous glare. She found that truly amusing. From the moment she had met him, she had taken an intense dislike of him that bordered on hatred. Probably because he reminded her so much of her mentor, Matsuo. They were cut from the same cloth.  
  
As Elektra began to walk up the path to the fortress, Swordsman pontificating about how fortunate he was to be in the presence of two lovely visions of beauty, she caught Tarou muttering something about "Chick's probably a dyke and wants the babe for herself."  
  
Elektra was barely able to suppress her mirth. It was just as well, since it served to blunt the confusion at her own inexplicable actions. Lying about the Captain being dead and protecting him from Tarou's abusive hands were both acts that went against everything she had been taught. While denying Tarou his opportunity to pleasure himself was rewarding, it would also serve to make Elektra a target of his anger. He had the skill and power to make life difficult for her, and presently she didn't have the option of killing him without provocation. And she didn't want to think about what the Mandarin might do to her if he found out she had lied. While it was true the Captain would still be a prisoner and represented no threat, it would make her employer trust her less. And trust was always a commodity one tried to broker, since it made turning on the person that much easier if one had to betray him.  
  
She would need to meditate on the matter later, when time permitted.  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
"Centurions!" the Mandarin shouted.  
  
Within moments, several robots lumbered into the room. Identical to one another, each was humanoid, about six feet tall, and weighed well over five hundred pounds. Their lower torso and thick legs were jet black. Their upper torsos and heads were a polished silver that seemed to reflect all the light shone about it. The design was similar to that of a Roman legionnaire wearing a mask and helmet. Rather than faces, each one had something more akin to a grill for their lower nose and jaws, while a black slit dominated the upper portion of the face. A solitary red dot bounced back and forth across the slit, going the length of one end to the other, and the repeating the motion endlessly.  
  
In a highly digitized voice, the lead robot said. "What... is... your... command?"  
  
"The reactor facility has been damaged even worse than I originally thought. All robots are to report to it and began repair work immediately. I will not have my plans undone at this stage."  
  
"By... your... command." The robots turned as one and headed to the lower bowels of the fortress.  
  
As the robots exited the chamber, Elektra, Tarou, and Swordsman appeared. Elektra still bore Bucky over her shoulder, continuously telling Swordsman that neither she nor her burden were interested in double-dating, especially if he was the only man there.  
  
While the two quarreled, Tarou pointed at the departing robots and said to the Mandarin, "I always wondered, if you got those neat robots, why not just build an army of them and take over the world that way? They're pretty durable and strong as hell. I mean, they are slow, but you could use them as walking tanks or something."  
  
"Perhaps," the Mandarin admitted. "But the design has one major drawback: they're terrible shots. Have you seen their eyes? They only have the one that keeps going back and forth. It would be a miracle if they hit anything. It's just fortunate their programs are capable of designing things, or else I wouldn't have been able to order them to build the higher functions of this facility, like the rocket and satellite. Conscripting the local villagers into building something basic, like the fortress, was simple. But farmers are incapable of the delicate work needed to create vehicles capable of breaching the atmosphere."  
  
Tarou nodded in approval "Yeah, lucky you found that spaceship with all these advanced gizmos and stuff, otherwise this whole takeover the world scheme would just be a dream."  
  
The Mandarin gave Tarou an evil stare, "How did you find out about the space-"  
  
"Shoot, we forgot to feel her titties again."  
  
"Maybe I should run back for a quick grope."  
  
"Aw, come on, Min... Whiz... I mean Speedy. I want to grab them too."  
  
"Oh," the Mandarin said in a flat voice as Speed Demon and Power Man entered the room.   
  
The pair spotted Elektra, and more importantly, the burden she bore. Despite being face down draped over the assassin's back, they were somehow aware of the fact she was not only female, but had a bosom that was worthy of attention.  
  
"Who's that?" Speed Demon asked as Elektra prevented him from feeling up the redhead.  
  
"Yes," the Mandarin agreed. "I was under the impression that this Captain Japan person was somewhat male."  
  
Elektra repeated what she had told Tarou and the Swordsman.  
  
"I was hoping to interrogate her myself," Tarou threw in before Elektra could protest. "I guarantee I can get her to talk."  
  
"I shall be the one to conduct all the interrogations," the Mandarin informed him in a tone that would brook no argument.  
  
Tarou merely bowed.  
  
Elektra again hid the smile that threatened to come to her. She could practically feel the anger boiling off Tarou, even if he openly accepted his employer's decision with a stoicism she had previously thought him incapable of.  
  
To Speed Demon and Power Man, the Mandarin instructed, "Secure the girl in the same room as the rest of the normal intruders."  
  
Elektra was quick to say, "Perhaps it would be best if I were to personally chain her and allow those two to show me the way, since we should make absolutely certain she is secured. After all, we wouldn't want any distractions that might prevent them from doing a good job."  
  
The Mandarin noted the way his henchmen drooled over Bucky's revealing top. "Yes, you raise a good point. You will bind the girl. Soon the satellite will be in position. After issuing my ultimatum, I shall interrogate the prisoners and discover how they knew the location of my secret base. We should have been impervious to any form of electronic detection, none of the villagers would be foolish enough to betray me, and the members of the government that are backing me have almost as much to lose as I, should their identities be revealed. It is a mystery that tasks me, and I would know what this all means."  
  
Just as he was about to head towards his control room, an electronic voice emitted from a microphone at his belt and said, "Security breach in the gateway."  
  
"Is there no end to these interruptions?" the Mandarin snarled as he headed for the nearest security checkpoint to monitor the nature of the intrusion.  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Having returned to his normal height, Giant Man watched with an amused gaze as his diminutive companion flit to and fro, basking in the opulent setting of the entryway to the mysterious fortress perched on top of the mountain. He could never recall Kasumi being so enchanted and lively, not that he could remember much about Kasumi to begin with, other than she was the most divine creature he had ever beheld in his entire life. Still, seeing her in such a delighted state eased his reservations about helping her become a superhero.  
  
"Have you ever seen such an amazing place?" Wasp asked.  
  
Giant Man took in his surroundings with a critical eye. The entryway was astounding. It was larger than his entire office and house combined. Its cathedral-like ceiling held stained glass filled with intricate, sinewy dragons. Statues of terracota soldiers lined the halls. Elegant pictures, most of battle scenes, lined the length of the hall. If the intent was to impress the casual visitor, it had certain done that and more. The room was filled with more works of art than most museums.   
  
"I'm almost certain we're in China, judging by the style of artwork," Giant Man told her.   
  
Wasp said, "I wonder why it's in the middle of nowhere? You'd think a place like this would be world famous."  
  
Giant Man shrugged. "Perhaps whoever owns all of this likes his privacy. I imagine the Chinese government would frown on someone owning so many luxurious items, unless it was owned by one of the higher ups in the government. In which case they would hide it so the populous wouldn't get jealous. It's all just conjecture, in any case."  
  
"Maybe it's the secret base of the group of villains the other heroes were hunting?" Wasp offered.  
  
"I doubt that very much. I think you're getting a touch over-enthusiastic about this super hero thing. Not everyone who's wealthy enough to own something like this is an evil mastermind bent on world domination." Giant Man began searching the room. "I know some Chinese. Let's see if we can find some servants to tell us where we are. Hello! Is anybody home?!"  
  
In response to the call, a voice filled the air, echoing loudly throughout the massive room. "So, yet another hero has dared to defile my lair. Since I already have your comrades, I deem you quite expendable."  
  
A series of small turrets, each with a single barrel, popped out from their concealed alcoves and targeted Giant Man.  
  
"Or I could be wrong," he admitted.  
  
Giant Man lunged to the left, narrowly avoiding a dozen beams of silent crimson light that struck the area where he had been a split second before. The beams bored tiny holes through everything they touched. Giant Man fell to the ground and rolled, several of the beams attempting to track him missing him by only the narrowest of margins. He eventually stopped rolling and crouched behind a statue. From what he had observed, none of the beams could reach him from this position. Since the statue was obviously some expensive piece of art, there was little chance the villain would shoot through it in an effort to kill him. That would give him a chance to think about getting out of his dire situation.  
  
And then dozen lasers struck the statue, slicing it into a number tiny pieces.  
  
Xxxxxxxxx  
  
"Remind me to get a new statue," the Mandarin instructed as he watched the destruction on the security monitor.   
  
"I'll send a robot to clean up the mess," Speed Demon said. "Luckily, lasers cauterize as they cut, so they won't have to shampoo the carpets."  
  
Power Man winced at the small pile that had been left behind. He turned away from the monitor, rather than risk seeing the grisly remains beneath the rubble. "They'll probably only need a dust pan for that mess. Did you recognize him?" he asked Speed Demon.  
  
"Nope. Didn't see him in any of the magazines lately. But there's been a recent explosion of costumed heroes in Japan. I remember reading about someone named Squirrel Girl."  
  
Tarou snorted. "And what could she do? Hide nuts for the winter?"  
  
"From what I understand, she could control squirrels."  
  
"And?"  
  
"She looked like a cross between a squirrel and a girl. I think she was a mutant. A lot of them don't get cool powers. That's sort of a myth that's cropped up over the years."  
  
"I wonder what powers that guy had?" Power Man asked idly.  
  
"The ability to fall to pieces." Tarou laughed hard at his joke  
  
The levity only served to anger the Mandarin. "Do any of you realize I have suffered more interruptions in one day than in the last five years since I initiated this plan?!"  
  
"And the day isn't over yet," Speed Demon happily pointed out.  
  
"Don't remind me," the Mandarin intoned. "He was very odd, though. Imagine talking to yourself like that."  
  
"Maybe he had a companion who was invisible?" Power Man suggested.  
  
"I did a heat scan in the room. There was nothing larger than an insect in there. No, he was obviously maladjusted. I have no need of unbalanced lackeys. Somewhat stupid ones are okay though," the Mandarin said pointedly to Speed Demon and Power Man.  
  
Speed Demon shook his head. "I disagree. Standards must be upheld in order to maintain a well-disciplined chain of command. Otherwise it will lead only to chaos and anarchy."  
  
Power Man nodded his head sagely.  
  
Tarou said, "My latest issue of Playboy just came in."  
  
"Tittie mags! Oh goody! I want to see it!"  
  
"Me too!"  
  
"Would you two idiots get out of here!" the Mandarin shouted.   
  
Tarou also took it as his cue to leave, snickering nonstop as he exited the room, Power Man and Speed Demon practically hanging all over him as they begged to see the issue of Playboy he had mentioned.  
  
Alone once again, the Mandarin shook his head. Maybe he would only give the two twits a small island nation rather than entire countries. Their loyalty was unsurpassed, and should be rewarded accordingly, but he didn't need incompetent boobs ruining the world once he was running things.  
  
With that in mind, the Mandarin checked on his satellite's orbit. Ten more minutes, and then the world would bow to his every whim.  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Wasp flew down among the debris of the statue. She began quietly stalking among the remains, calling out, "Giant Man? Giant Man? Where are you?"  
  
"Under here." A muffled voice cried out from under one of the larger pieces of rubble.  
  
"We seem to be making a habit of digging ourselves out of debris," Wasp lamented. After seeing the lasers hit, she might have been more worried about her partner's fate, save for the fact she had seen him activate one of the canisters of shrink gas a split second before the lasers sliced the work of art into so many pieces of worthless rock. She was about to knock the lasers out with her sting when they ceased on their own. Sensing that either they were unable to track her, or she was so small the people watching were unaware of her presence, she decided to remain quiet and help Giant Man sneak away. With any luck, the villains thought he was dead, which meant they would have the element of surprise. Obviously it was an important element, as she was quickly learning. She and Giant Man had been unaware of the lasers, and boy had that been an unpleasant surprise.  
  
Wasp flew down to the piece of rubble and helped heave it off Giant Man. "Are you all right?"  
  
Giant Man stood and rotated his shoulder. "One of the chunks hit me pretty hard. No major damage, but it's definitely sore and I wouldn't recommend any lifting for a few days, Ka... Ka... Kasumi."  
  
Wasp silently scolded herself. There must have been something in the shrink gas that was affecting the doctor. He would never fool around in his usual relaxed manner like this in such a tense situation. That he acted serious when he was human-sized or larger proved that. But every time he shrank down to her size, he became a babbling wreck. Given different circumstances, it was amusing, but not under these conditions.  
  
She began leading him away by the hand. "We'll let you grow big once we're out of the range of those nasty lasers."  
  
"A walk through the park with you would be nice, Kasumi." Giant Man sounded as if he was in heaven.  
  
Wasp sighed. Surely superheroing was not supposed to be like this.  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Akane opened her eyes, confused as she went almost directly from the dreaming world to that of reality.  
  
She started to rise from her uncomfortable bedding and discovered she could only sit up a tiny bit, as a series of metal bands were a handful of centimeters above her. She began to panic, until she realized she could squirm out the bottom. It took only a moment to do so. Once freed, she found herself standing in the middle of a room that appeared as though it belonged in the middle of a bad science fiction movie.   
  
Where was she? It took only a moment for her to recall what had transpired. Her blood began to boil as she remembered how easily the Mandarin had dealt with her. She would make him sorry. She felt recovered enough now from the injuries the villain and his rocket had inflicted upon her. At near peak condition, and aware of his rings and inherent abilities, she would be able to kick the crud out of him and show what she could do. Akane Tendou was a wimp that lost in everything, and she would be damned if she would allow that to happen when she was Thor as well. All she needed to do to even things up was tap her cane...  
  
Her cane! Where was it? Her eyes scanned the room high and low, but she saw no sign of the instrument. This was extraordinarily bad. Had the Mandarin somehow discovered the secret of the walking stick and hidden it away from her? She was helpless without it. She would be ordinary Akane Tendou, never to fly again, never to know the awesome might contained in the powerful body which allowed her to do what she had only dreamed about. She would be the same helpless cripple she always had been. It wasn't fair!  
  
A pall of helplessness threatened to consume her when she remembered seeing something odd in the room. Originally she had been so focused on locating her stick she had disregarded everything that wasn't it. But now that her mind had a chance to process the information, it brought the unusual thing to her attention.   
  
Slowly Akane walked up to the glass cube and saw a sight that forced out her depression. Some cruel monster had locked up a poor little piglet. It was a cute little thing, with black skin and a yellow and black striped bandanna tied around its neck. She had always wanted a pet just like it. And some jerk, probably that evil Mandarin, had locked it away to either experiment on or do something equally heartless to it. Well, she would foil his plans and save the little piglet.   
  
Spotting the control panel, Akane began to look it over. There was no writing on the panels: just symbols. She began pushing some of the larger buttons in the hopes that it would release the porcine prisoner. It was the second dial she turned that caused a hum to emit from the cube the piglet was in. In response to her twisting, two buttons located under the dial began flashing. One was red and the other green. The only question was which button to push.   
  
"I like green better than red." Akane pushed the gas evacuation button instead of the one that would have flooded the cube with cyanide. Within moments the red mist was filtered out and the door to the cube sprang open.   
  
Akane hurriedly entered the cube and carefully picked up the piglet, cradling him in her arms. He was warm to the touch, and seemed to be breathing regularly. She held him close and whispered softly, "Mr. Pig? Mr. Pig, are you all right?  
  
The gentle voice roused the piglet. It fluttered its ears and woke groggily. It looked around, appearing confused, then looked Akane in the eye.   
  
"You're all right." She hugged the pig. As it was nestled against her cheek, she failed to see it turn a shade of red, obvious even against its dark skin.  
  
Akane held it out from her body so she could look it in the eye. "Don't worry. I won't let these bad men experiment on you, Mr. Pig. We're going to get out of here. But you're going to have to stay quiet and not squirm around, otherwise it'll slow us down. Do you think you can do that?"  
  
The piglet nodded its head.  
  
The response made Akane giggle slightly. "It's almost like you can understand me."  
  
This time the piglet nodded its head vigorously.   
  
Akane considered that. Perhaps they had already experimented on the pig and increased its intelligence so that it could understand Japanese. That would make things easier. She cradled the pig against her body as she limped out of the room. Almost as an afterthought, she said to him, "Keep your eyes open for a wooden stick lying around. We can't leave without it. Finding it is the only way we'll get out of here alive."  
  
The piglet nodded its head and looked around as the pair began to furtively walk around, seeking both the cane and an exit to the mysterious facility they were located in.  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
"And exactly how did you get here again?"  
  
"I already told you. Cap secretly asked me to stowaway and help out if you guys got caught."  
  
"And exactly how does your getting caught help us?"  
  
"Shut up, Smell Man."  
  
"And what sort of idiot wears a bikini top into battle?"  
  
"Oh ho, like someone who's been stripped down to their shorts and a stupid-looking mask has any business criticizing someone else about their fashion sense."  
  
"It's not like I had a choice in the matter!" Daredevil snapped.   
  
"That's right. It's not Daredevil's fault they stripped him because of all the weapons he had concealed in his clothing. By the way, have you ever considered briefs instead of boxers?"  
  
"Stop looking at my body, you pervert!" Daredevil shouted twice as loudly.  
  
Flustered, Hawkeye said, "I'm... ah not looking at you. I'm looking past you at Bucky's breasts."  
  
"Don't look at my body either, you pervert!"  
  
"Thor doesn't think I'm a pervert," Hawkeye mumbled before realizing that the very reason Thor thought she wasn't a pervert in fact did make her a pervert. "At least Captain Japan is still free."  
  
Bucky shifted uncomfortably, "Actually, I wouldn't count on him for help. He's been... incapacitated. But I guarantee you I'm more than up to the job of replacing him."  
  
"Oh, you've been doing a great job of it so far," Daredevil said dryly.  
  
"Well if you're such hot stuff, why don't you get us out of here?!" Bucky snarled back.  
  
Pushed to the edge, the Iron Rose shouted, "How about we try figuring a way out of our predicament instead of YELLING AT EACH OTHER FOR NO DAMN REASON?!"  
  
That shocked the arguing trio out of their 'debate' and made them reassess the situation. All four of the people were trapped in a prison cell. Daredevil, Hawkeye, and Bucky were all hanging vertically from the ceiling. Their arms were held high above their heads, not simply manacled, but encased in some sort of metal tubes that hung from the ceiling and were attached at their wrists, completely encompassing their hands. Even if they had lock picks, they couldn't use them since metal would be between them and the locking mechanisms. Their feet were likewise completely encased in metal cylinders that were attached firmly to the floor.  
  
The Iron Rose's condition was not much better. She lay prone on a metal slab. There was a mechanical device, reminiscent of a spider, attached to her helmet. She had informed the others that it completely immobilized the armor and only a minimal amount of power still ran through it. She could have moved the bulky armor using her own muscle's strength, but a set of metal bands so thick that Thor would have had problems snapping them were wrapped around her legs, torso, and arms.   
  
"We're screwed," Hawkeye lamented.   
  
The only door to the holding room opened. Striding with all his regal bearing, the Mandarin entered, his purple cape billowing behind him. His imperious stare seemed to bore holes through the captives, as though he had been the one discomforted by their transgressions rather than the other way around. In his wake followed the entirety of his Lethal Legion.   
  
The Mandarin turned his baleful gaze upon each of the prisoners. Even Daredevil could feel the ire and contempt radiating from the man, making him very uneasy. There was an unearthly quality about the villain that set the sightless youth's senses on edge. It was similar to the emanations he felt from Thor, but possessed a malicious edge the goddess lacked.  
  
After the Mandarin finished looking his captives over, he deigned to speak with them. "Now that I've finished issuing my ultimatum to the United Nations, I can get to the small matter of my unexpected intruders. Forgive me, but we have not yet been properly introduced. I am the all-powerful, and soon to be master of the world, Mandarin."  
  
"A Mandarin is actually a pretty low official in government hierarchies," Daredevil mentioned.   
  
"The name is temporary. A reminder that I have not yet attained my goals. Once I am officially declared ruler the world, I shall claim the title my birthright demands: Emperor Herb."  
  
"Not much of an improvement if you ask me," Bucky quipped.  
  
The Mandarin flicked out a finger. The impact beam hit with a force that could crack a cinderblock, knocking the wind out of the redhead and leaving her gasping for breath.  
  
"I did not ask for your opinion," the Mandarin said icily. "You are my prisoners. It would behoove you to remember that. You are at my mercy, and I show very little to those that do not obey my every whim."  
  
"It's true," Power Man said.  
  
Speed Demon added. "Sometimes he shows very little mercy to those who do obey his every whim as well."  
  
The Mandarin turned his glare upon them.   
  
"We'll shut up now," Speed Demon said quickly. Power Man nodded his assent.  
  
With some measure of her breath regained, Bucky gasped out, "Where's that Thor chick?"  
  
The Mandarin gained an amused grin. "She is well cared for. Much better than you, in fact. She is something of a guest of honor, and potentially useful to be. A situation far less dire than yours. If you do not behave yourselves, your fate will be identical to that of your comrade."  
  
The quartet looked at each other in confusion.   
  
"What comrade? Do you mean the green behemoth? He's not with us. I have no idea how he showed up. I think he attacked your men only because you attacked him. He seems to do that," Iron Rose said, still strapped to the table.  
  
"No, not him. He's locked up with Thor. I meant the one in red with the little insect-like projections on his mask. Blue gloves, boots, and shorts?"  
  
"Don't know anyone like that," Hawkeye said.   
  
"You know, talks to himself? He was trying to come in through the front door looking for you," the Mandarin insisted.  
  
"More backup?" Daredevil asked Bucky.  
  
"Nope. I was the only one with Cap. Maybe Thor had a sidekick."  
  
"Playing dumb only serves to anger me," the Mandarin warned.   
  
"Maybe he was someone else you pissed off," Bucky offered. "You don't seem to be the type that has a shortage of enemies."  
  
"That's true," Speed Demon blurted out. He saw the look the Mandarin turned on him again. "But it is," he insisted.  
  
The Mandarin relented. "A good point. Still, I doubt if that masked adventurer's presence was coincidental. I'll torture you later, to be certain."  
  
"I'll be looking forward to it," Bucky said acidly.  
  
"Be wary, girl. You try my patience."  
  
"Oh, and what will you do if I get you angry? Torture me? You already said you were going to do that."  
  
The Mandarin was at something of a loss. Bucky had raised a valid point. He looked around, and then his eyes settled on something that would prove useful. "If you don't behave yourself, I'll let my two associates feel you up."   
  
Power Man and Speed Demon jumped in joy.   
  
"All right, titties!"  
  
"This is great. The Boss never lets us feel women up!"  
  
Bucky saw the two slavering men approach, their eyes focused solely on her cleavage. She began squirming in her bonds, trying to stay out of their reach and not moving a centimeter. "I'll behave! I'll behave!"  
  
Delighted at the acquiescence, the Mandarin gave a curt, "Back! Back I say!"  
  
Power Man and Speed Demon reluctantly backed off, mumbling about how they were never allowed to have any fun.  
  
Now with some measure of control of the situation, the Mandarin said, "How did you discover my plans for world domination?"  
  
Hawkeye said, "Actually, we didn't know until you told us just now."  
  
"How did you find my base? It's protected by a technology from beyond this world."  
  
The Iron Rose shouted. "Ha! I knew it. No system made on Earth could track my... I mean my employer's Quinjet. Her genius is the most brilliant on the planet."  
  
Daredevil said, "Look, your flunkies made a mess at the airport. They won the first round against some of us, so we set out to hunt them down for revenge. We tracked them until they disappeared around here. From there, we got lucky and stumbled on your base. And that's the whole truth."  
  
The others agreed with Daredevil's statement.  
  
After a moment's consideration, the Mandarin said, "You know something, I believe you."  
  
"Good," Bucky said.  
  
"Because the whole lot of you are too stupid to have figured out my plans by yourselves."  
  
"Hey!" Hawkeye shouted.  
  
The Mandarin relaxed visibly. "My worries were for naught. There will be no further interruptions. No more attacks from random people whom I've never met before. My base is secure. My would-be attackers are now my prisoners, and all of my plans will reach fruition."  
  
Bucky tensed up. This was a perfect situation to institute a basic technique her father had taught her when it came to being a superhero. "Why, whatever plan would that be?"  
  
"You are interested in my plans?" the Mandarin asked.  
  
"Sure." Bucky twisted a bit in her chains. "I've got nothing better to do, and I'm curious as to what's going on here that had you so worried about people knowing this place existed.."  
  
"I'll be more than happy to share the scope of my genius with you."  
  
Bucky smiled inwardly. It was just like her father had always said. Megalomaniacal criminal masterminds loved nothing more than to brag about their greatness. They'd do it to anyone, even their enemies. Now she'd learn everything.  
  
The Mandarin began. "I am the last of a line of rulers whose blood is infused with that of legendary dragons."  
  
Speed Demon raised his hand and said, "I've heard this story before. Can I go?"  
  
"Me too," Power Man seconded.   
  
"Get out of here!" the Mandarin snapped. The duo exited immediately. "Does anyone else wish to leave?"  
  
"Me," Iron Rose said.  
  
"Oh, shut up!" Blue energy crackled briefly around his body. It dissipated as he regained his composure. "Now, as I was saying, I am of the Dragon Clan of the Musk, an ancient and powerful line whose destiny it is to rule the world. However, for all my inherent power, the Musk were never large enough, nor had enough allies, to make these dreams come true. That was until I stumbled on a treasure that lay in the legendary Valley of the Mists."  
  
"It's said the ghosts of dead dragons fill the area and devour all those that dare trespass upon it. Of those that have dared to tempt the legend by entering the mists, none have ever returned," Daredevil said in a voice filled with awe.  
  
"I see you are familiar with the legend," the Mandarin said, delighted that someone backed up his tale. "But being imbued with the blood of dragons, I had no need to fear such a place. I entered the valley, scouring every centimeter of it. It was there I discovered the key to my ultimate victory: the ruins of a spacecraft that had fallen there hundreds of years ago."  
  
"It was hundreds of years old and still worked?" Hawkeye asked.   
  
"The race that created it apparently knew how to make machines that last," the Mandarin said. "I also found what was left of the pilot. It was obvious from the skeletal remains that he was of reptilian origin, rather than mammalian. Perhaps sensing the draconic blood within my veins, the still working parts of the craft responded to my attempts to control it. I found a device which implanted the knowledge of how the equipment functioned, and how I could create robots to assist me with employing, redesigning, and refitting the equipment for my own plans." He held up his hands, showing the jewelry that adorned them. "In fact these rings were components of the engine, which had been rendered useless in the crash. Each one had a different function which enabled the craft to navigate the vast ocean of space. In my hands, in conjunction with my inherent abilities, they make me the most powerful man on the face of the planet."  
  
The Mandarin began pacing, pausing before each of the hanging people for a moment before continuing to the next. "It took me several years to redesign the devices on the craft into suitable items I could use. It took almost as long to court the proper authorities to supply me with the more elaborate materials that I required to construct what you see before you, but it was worth every moment. For now, I stand on the pinnacle of success."  
  
"And how do you figure that?" Bucky asked.  
  
The Mandarin laughed. "Using the devices within the spacecraft, I have made this fortress invisible to the eyes of the outside world. Even if someone stumbles on it, my weaponry can shoot down any craft or vehicle. You witnessed that yourselves. And I have other devices that can raise a barrier of energy to protect the fortress from anything, even nuclear attack. Not that radiation can harm me to begin with. An advantage of my dragon blood makes me immune to it. I have complete anonymity."  
  
"I don't see how nobody being able to find you makes you able to take over the world," Hawkeye said.  
  
"Alone, it could not. However, my invisible nature means I can strike with impunity, and strike I can. Today I was finally able to launch my satellite, the last piece to my master plan. It's no ordinary one. Oh no. It employs the most powerful weapon from the space ship: an orbital particle beam. With it stationed in orbit, I can create a thirty-five kilometer wide beam of destruction that can eradicate anything in its path. And it leaves no harmful residue behind, unlike nuclear or biological weapons."  
  
"I hate to break this to you, but satellites can easily be shot down," the Iron Rose said.  
  
The Mandarin turned to her. "Ordinary ones, yes, but not this one. Thanks to the spacecraft, the satellite is invisible to any electronic equipment on the planet. I am the only one that knows where it is and can track it. The only way one could spot it is by flying around and spotting it visually, and even then I have precautions, for the surface of the device is made of light refractive materials. You'd have to be within a quarter of a kilometer of it to see the distortion it makes, and even then you have to know what you're looking for. And the satellite even shifts its orbital path after every blast, making it impossible to figure out its location by where and when the blasts were delivered.   
  
"Think about it. If you were a world leader, how could you live with the knowledge that at any time I could render your city to ashes with a touch of the button? I could destroy whole countries within a day. No one can stand against my divine hand. I hold the power of life and death over very living being on the planet. I am like a god, and will rule the entire world."  
  
"No one will give in to your outrageous demands," Hawkeye said.  
  
The Mandarin laughed. "On the contrary, I should have official control by the end of the week. Long before I launched my satellite, I made arrangements with certain elements within the Chinese government. They have already agreed to 'give in' to my demands. In return for their obedience, I intend to allow them to control the majority of the Eastern Hemisphere. True, they will be subject to my ultimate whims, but they will have far more power than they have now. Once other countries see that obedience will be rewarded, it'll be a race to see who can capitulate first."  
  
"And you think you can trust the Chinese? Believe me, they'll turn on you the first opportunity they get. I can attest to that firsthand, " Daredevil spat.  
  
Elektra nodded almost imperceptibly at that.   
  
The Mandarin laughed. "Of course I don't. Once I have consolidated my control, I'm certain they will try to kill me and seize control of the satellite. I have already made preparations for that eventual betrayal. But they will obey me for now, since our goals are the same: complete global domination."  
  
"You're insane," Hawkeye spat.  
  
"Actually, his idea has merit," Iron Rose said from her prone position. "Even if the man implementing it clearly needs to be institutionalized."  
  
The Mandarin laughed. "Have you seen the state of the world? It is nothing more than a collection of fractionalized narrow-minded people constantly at each other's throats. There is always at least one war going on somewhere. Governments change almost every day in some parts of the world. Brutal military dictatorships. Widespread famine and disease. Overpopulation. Religious, economic, and political dogmas that cannot coexist with one another. They will destroy themselves, or at the very least continue to make themselves miserable for eternity. That is unless one force conquers them all. Conquers them and unites them. And that force shall be me.  
  
"I am not insane. I do not live under the delusion that I can truly control an entire world alone. I might be the supreme leader, but I will need trustworthy individuals that will obey my orders to whom I will delegate authority. I will need people to manage the daily maintenance of the land. To others, it might seem oppressive at first, especially to those that believe in freedom --which does not really exist-- but the truth is people want to be ruled. I shall give absolute rule to them. All of them. Everything I do will be for the good of all. I desire subjects to govern, not a world full of corpses. I desire a world of peace, not one filled with violence. I want a world full of one people, not a collection of races. One system of belief. One government. One ruler."  
  
"And you're that ruler," Daredevil said coldly.  
  
The Mandarin's eyes seemed to glow. "Of course, for I am the greatest person in the world. I am more than human. I am the best hope for humanity. All I truly want is what is best for all, and I am willing to go to any lengths to see to it that my wisdom is acknowledged. I am strong enough to bear the burden of leadership. I am strong enough to make the changes that must be made, to make the sacrifices that must come about, in order to ensure one world order under me and for all future generations. All that I ask in return is complete obedience, and I shall take care of everyone. Suffering will come to an end. Since I know better than everyone else, and humanity has proven it cannot take care of itself, there is no other way than for me to assume control."   
  
"And what about those that disagree with you?" Iron Rose asked.  
  
The Mandarin scoffed. "Did you not hear what I said? I am the greatest man alive. I know what is best for all. That is the truth. Those that would stand against me are by definition evil, and need to be done away with. All will come to realize this in time."  
  
Bucky said, "You know, Hawkeye was wrong about you being insane."  
  
The Mandarin laughed. "So you finally acknowledge the necessity of my leadership."  
  
"No. I mean you're not just insane. You are really-no-doubt-about-it-completely-over-the-hill-need-to-be-locked-in-a-straightjacket-insane."  
  
The Mandarin raised his left hand and held it in front of Bucky's face. She found herself staring at a yellow ring. It began to glow, the smell of ozone reaching her nostrils. For a moment, she understood that she was staring death right in the eye and could do nothing to prevent it.   
  
And then the Mandarin lowered his hand. "You amuse me, in a fashion. I think I shall allow you to survive a while longer, or at least until you see me ruling the world. There will be no greater triumph that to see your ideals shattered right before your eyes."  
  
Bucky laughed. "Like that's ever going to happen. I got news for you, pal. Once I get out of these little manacles, I'll be making you eat those words. I'll stop you before you get a chance to use that satellite and blackmail the world."  
  
The Mandarin stared at Bucky in confusion. Then a look of realization crossed his features. "You misunderstand me. I could hardly issue an ultimatum to the United Nations without a show of force and the willingness to use it for its stated purposes.   
  
"As of a half hour ago, Mexico City became a thirty-five kilometer wide crater."  
  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
  
Endnotes:  
  
Not sure if I threw anyone with the idea that the heroes have essentially failed in their mission, or at least the scope of it, and now can only keep things from getting worse. Admittedly, it can get much worse, but still...  
  
FYI, yes, there really was a character called Squirrel Girl and yes, those were her powers (though I'm not sure about her being a mutant). She appeared in one of the seasonal Marvel Super Hero comics in the early 90's in an Iron Man tale. She defeated Dr. Doom. I'm fairly certain Doom has since explained that it was really a defective Doombot she had beaten, and that it had been summarily destroyed for daring to debase the good Doctor's name. I mean, wouldn't you if someone claimed Squirrel Girl kicked your ass? ^_^ And yes, the Mandarin's Centurions are indeed identical to Cylons from Battlestar Galactic. Kudos if you're old enough to remember that series.   
  
  
In case anyone was wondering, Mexico City's population is somewhere around 13+ million by the latest census estimate. Just in case the full impact of Mandy's statement wasn't fully realized.   
  
  
Special thanks to  
Gary Ee  
Chris Horton  
William Morse 


	11. Ten Rings to Rule Them All IV

Avenging Chapter 11  
Ten Rings to Rule Them All IV  
  
  
Any and all C+C is appreciated. You can contact me at  
sommer@3rdm.net  
  
All of my fics are stored at the following:  
  
Larry F's new address at:  
http://www.rakhal.com/florestica  
  
Or R+C books at:  
http://dbsommer.rcbooks.org  
  
And also Angcobra is now storing all of my fics, at   
http://dbsommer.web1000.com/dbsommer.html  
  
Standard Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to any of the Ranma 1/2 characters. They belong to Takahashi and whomever she sold the rights to. Marvel Characters belong to Marvel Comics.  
  
Note: I'm now experimenting with using the 'xxxx' to denote POV changes in the same scene sometimes. I'd just double line breaks, but it isn't obvious on plain text message like I usually send. If it's too distracting, let me know and I'll try something else.  
  
  
xxxxxxxxxxx  
  
"...thinking of New Delhi next. There are too many people in the world, and it's not as though India has a shortage of people. And on the plus side, the Pakistanis will probably rush to my side to get the Kashmir region they've wanted for so long." The Mandarin saw he no longer had the group's attention. Instead, they seemed absorbed in their own thoughts. In Bucky's case, she had turned a shade of white usually identified with people totally drained of blood.   
  
Smiling in obvious amusement at their discomfort, the Mandarin said, "I see you've come to terms with the fact there is nothing you can do to stop me. I see no point in wasting further time here. I really must pick a second target. I sincerely doubt one show of force will be sufficient to get the world to toe the line. Once I prove I can destroy all their cities at will, the world will capitulate. I'd tell you to have a good day, but it's only going to get worse. Much, much worse." Laughing, he exited the room with the remaining members of his Lethal Legion trailing behind.  
  
Once the party had walked some distance away from the prison wing, Swordsman gave his employer a wide grin. "I must say, it was amusing to see the crestfallen look on both that devilish cad and the archer's faces when you told them about Mexico. To think, they were foolish enough to actually believe you."  
  
"What's that supposed to mean?" The Mandarin stopped walking an stared at Swordsman.  
  
"That they believed your lie."  
  
"Lie? I didn't lie. I did destroy Mexico City."  
  
Swordsman's amusement died. "But I assumed you were bluffing when you told the United Nations you would start destroying their cities one at a time unless they gave in to you. You don't mean to say you actually went through with it?"  
  
"Of course I did. I never bluff."  
  
"But there were millions of people there," Swordsman protested.  
  
"An effective show of force backed by the will to use it, yes." The Mandarin voice had taken on a dangerous tone. "Do you have something to say? Are you having second thoughts about joining?"  
  
Swordsman was about to say just that when something inside made him hold his tongue. He did not like the way the Mandarin and Tarou were looking at him. There was also something unsettling about Elektra's position directly behind his back, even if she was obviously so infatuated with him that she would never do him harm.  
  
Hesitantly, Swordsman said, "No. I was just... ill prepared for the full ramifications of your actions to hit me. The knowledge that so many people are dead so quickly is unsettling."  
  
The Mandarin nodded. "I would have preferred to avoid it as well. They would have been my subjects, and one can never have too many subjects to rule. However, it was a necessity. Sacrifices have to be made to show that I am in charge now. More will come, so be prepared for that as well."  
  
Bile rose from Swordsman's stomach and threatened to overwhelm him. "I must leave. My sword needs polishing." He hurried off.  
  
Once Swordsman was out of sight, Tarou said, "I think Swordy's getting cold feet."  
  
"Yes," the Mandarin conceded. "It would be best to keep a close eye on him. I am fairly certain he will see things my way, he is quite the pompous ass, believing that he is a shining example of humanity, and obviously wishes to receive what he feels is his due, but he might not be properly prepared for the actions necessary to obtain those desires. The last thing in the world I will tolerate is one of my own turning against me." The Mandarin continued looking down the hall in the direction Swordsman had departed. "If he becomes a problem, Elektra, I want you to use your talents to..."   
  
He turned to see Elektra was no longer there. Looking down the corridor, he saw that she was not only no longer behind him, but nowhere in sight. She had somehow managed to disappear within a twenty meter long section of featureless corridor in less than ten seconds without making a sound.   
  
Tarou was equally mystified. "Ninjas. Go figure."  
  
"Impudence," the Mandarin snarled.  
  
Tarou used the break in the conversation to change the subject. "And speaking of impudence, what do you want to do with those jerks you have locked up back there?"  
  
The Mandarin spoke in the same tone one might use talking about animals in a kennel. "The regular ones are useless. The armored one I might keep if her technical expertise proves useful. The goddess is mine, and I wish to experiment on the pig. I might be able to use it to make you more powerful."  
  
The youth's grin told the Mandarin what his subordinate thought of that. Satisfied he had the complete loyalty of at least one his hired lackeys, the Mandarin continued. "As for the fate of the normal ones, since they know the location of my base, I will dispatch them in a little while, once it becomes convenient for me."  
  
"How about giving me Cleavage Girl to dispose of?"  
  
The Mandarin made a face at the request. "Do keep your base instincts to yourself. She has not irritated me to the point I wish her a lingering death, or a fate worse than one."  
  
Tarou gave a hurt look. "That's cold, especially coming from a guy who just killed millions of people."  
  
"Only out of necessity, not out of some primal urge," the Mandarin assured him. "Be patient. Hundreds of women will flock to you once you are in a position of power."  
  
"A harem does sound nice," Tarou agreed. "And you'll give me my new name once this is all done, right?"  
  
"Are you sure you want to be known as 'Studmuffin Tarou'?"  
  
"I want it to be an appropriate name. The chicks will really dig me then."  
  
The Mandarin just shook his head sadly.  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
With their tormentors gone, Hawkeye found the ability to speak. "He was kidding, right? He couldn't have leveled Mexico City. I mean, we haven't been here long enough for him to do that."  
  
"He was telling the truth," Daredevil said.  
  
"How do you know?!" Hawkeye's voice held an edge of hysteria to it.  
  
"I know when people are lying," Daredevil said morosely. "It's sort of a super power I have."  
  
"What, like your super sense of smell?" Hawkeye demanded.  
  
"Yes!" Daredevil snapped.  
  
"No more arguing."  
  
Daredevil and Hawkeye turned to the voice, which had been little more than a whisper.   
  
On the table, the Iron Rose turned her head. "What was that, Bucky?"  
  
This time the statement was more forceful. "I said no more arguing. If we had worked as a team, we would have beaten those jerks and kept that psycho from killing all those people. It's our fault we whined and bitched and moaned and got our heads handed to us."  
  
"We don't know that," Daredevil said,  
  
"They were powerful," Iron Rose agreed.   
  
"Quit making excuses!" Bucky snapped. "All my life Pop kept trying to hammer the idea I had to be a superhero in my head 'cause people needed them. Only I didn't listen. I thought someone else could take care of those problems and I could live my life without that hassle. But I was wrong, and now a bunch of people suffered for it. The world does need people like me to protect it from guys like the Mandarin. And I'm going to protect it. I may have screwed up once, but no more!"  
  
"I did the same thing, when I was younger," Daredevil said. "I tried to protect someone I loved, only I wasn't strong enough, and like those people in Mexico, she paid the price for it. I swore I would become stronger so neither she nor anyone else would suffer because I was too weak to help. And now I've failed again. I'll do whatever it takes to redeem myself, even if it costs me my life."  
  
"You can count me in," Hawkeye said.  
  
"And myself as well," Iron Rose agreed.  
  
"We'll avenge all the people we failed," Bucky softly intoned.  
  
As the final word left her mouth, the door to the room opened again and Elektra stepped in. She walked across the room with purpose, stopping once she was in front of Daredevil.  
  
"What? Come to gloat some more?" he asked.  
  
Elektra scowled at him. "There was something strange with the way you looked at the Mandarin. It wasn't right."  
  
Daredevil's heartbeat quickened. "I have no idea what you're t-Hey!"  
  
Elektra ripped off his mask and grabbed his face roughly. She forced him to look at her while she stared at him. The blue in his iris' was nearly milky white as the rest of his eyes. "You're blind!" she said in shock.  
  
"Yes!" Daredevil spat.   
  
"How is it you can do so much? It's not training in blind fighting. I know people who practice it, and you're far, far better than they. The technique is wrong."  
  
"I have a radar sense," Daredevil said, seeing no reason to hide the truth any longer.  
  
"You were bitten by a radioactive bat?" Bucky asked.  
  
"No!"  
  
"Then how did you get such powers?" Elektra asked.  
  
"Drop dead!" he spat.  
  
"You'll die long before me," she said coldly. "I suppose it doesn't..." her voice trailed off as she stared at his face more closely. A curious expression began to cloud her features.  
  
Disliking the experience of having his face held, and sensing he was being stared at, Daredevil gave an irritable, "What's your problem? Afraid a blind guy is tougher than you?"  
  
Elektra did not respond. Blind, Daredevil was only aware of the change in her heartbeat as it increased slightly. The others in the room were puzzled as the assassin stared at the face, obviously confused about something beyond his blindness. Her hands began running over his skin, studying its texture as though Elektra was the blind one and the sense of touch was the only one left to her.   
  
And then her probing stopped, and her eyes widened. In a tone that was full of wonder and surprise, she said, "Mu Si?"  
  
Daredevil jerked his head hard enough to tear it out of her hands. His own features mirrored hers as he said, "How do you know my name? I've never met you before. I'd remember."  
  
Turning a shade of pale which almost matched Bucky's from before, Elektra backed away cautiously, as though she was afraid Daredevil would somehow slip out of his bonds and come after her.  
  
"How do you know me?!" Daredevil called out again, inexplicably desperate to know the answer.  
  
Elektra said nothing as she backed into the door. Refusing to tear her eyes from Daredevil, she blindly hit the button to open it.  
  
Just as she backed through the door frame, Daredevil cried out, "It's Shan Pu, isn't it? She told you about me. Do you know where she is? Tell me!"  
  
The door hissed shut.  
  
"She knows! I heard her heart rate speed up when I said Shan Pu's name. She knows where she is! I've finally found someone who's seen her after all these years!" Daredevil cried out.  
  
"Who's Shampoo?" Hawkeye asked.  
  
"The girl I've been looking for all my life!" Daredevil cried out. "She's been lost to me for over a decade. I was beginning to lose hope she was alive. But that woman knows her! That means Shan Pu's out there somewhere, and I'll discover where she is. I need to get out of here." Daredevil began struggling in his bonds, trying to pull free. The metal made very faint noises as he strained until his muscles burned and his shoulders threatened to pull out of their sockets.  
  
Iron Rose warned, "Save your strength. Hurt yourself while you're hanging there and you won't be able to help anyone."  
  
"I need to know where Shan Pu is!" Daredevil insisted.  
  
"No, we need to stop the Mandarin from killing another ten million people," Bucky reminded him. "We'll shake down that backstabber for info later. The innocent people in the world come first."  
  
"But-"  
  
"He's right," Hawkeye said. "Would this Shampoo want you to risk placing so many people in jeopardy for her sake?"  
  
"No," Daredevil reluctantly admitted.   
  
Bucky said, "Right. Then let's keep trying to figure out how to get out of these bonds and help save the world. Try to find some weak link in these metal cylinders or something." Bucky began twisting in her bonds, testing them rather than just applying brute force in an effort to free herself. She was methodical as she listened to every noise they made and felt where they had give and where they were firmly attached. A lock was only as strong as its weakest point. She would find that point and attack it until it gave. Nothing would stop her from breaking free.  
  
Nothing.  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Elektra's legs were moving fast enough to almost be considered running. She was currently in her worst emotional state in years. She knew she had been unbalanced since she inexplicably protected Captain Japan. But now things were many times worse. Mu Si was alive! She hadn't thought of him since her first month of indoctrination with the Hand. She had assumed he had died at the hands of her original captors. With him dead, there was no need to think of him, so she had not. His death had signified the last connection to her past was gone. Burying the misery of her previous life was frighteningly easy, even if what she was given to replace it was far worse. There were more important matters to consider, such as staying alive. But now, during what might have been the most important moment of her life, he had returned, like the legendary Phoenix her people spoke of. To compound matters further, it was obvious he had not forgotten her, and was in fact still searching for her, even after a decade in which he had no reason to believe she was still alive.  
  
No, he had not forgotten Shan Pu, but Shan Pu was not to be found. That identity was dead, which was for the best. There was only Elektra the Assassin now. Mu Si should have meant nothing to her, but he did. Exactly why remained a mystery. Perhaps she was not quite the killer she fancied herself, or perhaps the identity of Shan Pu was not so easily destroyed.   
  
She remembered what Mu Si had been like growing up. They had been childhood friends, playing with one another frequently. But then he changed. He began to continually assault her with a barrage of proclamations of love; a feeling she most certainly did not share. It was beginning to get to a point where she was starting to avoid the pest when her world changed forever. The village died in a fury of fire and the two of them, all that was left of their mutual world, fled together. Shan Pu had been devastated by the destruction of all she knew at the hands of the damnable men in Beijing. It was too much for her to take. It rendered her nearly catatonic. If not for Mu Si, she would have never reached Japan. Of course, in light of how events had unfolded, perhaps dying in China would not have been such a terrible fate.  
  
"I do not need these distractions!" Elektra snarled. The simplest way to remove the irritants was to simply ask the Mandarin if she could kill both Mu Si and Bucky --she was certain that was what he was planning to do anyway-- but she found the idea of snuffing out either of their lives equally appalling. That was a further sign of her emotional turmoil, for until today, there had been no one on the planet whom she would have thought twice about dispatching.   
  
Elektra ceased her running. She was going nowhere in a hurry. Instead she calmed herself and headed to her room, intent on seeking the solace of meditation. This was an important matter, perhaps the most important in her life. She had to reach a decision regarding what to do, and soon.  
  
Xxxxxxxxxx  
  
"It's good to be the Emperor." The Mandarin smiled to himself as he headed toward the master control room to properly enjoy the fruits of his labors. He still had a second target to decide upon, and he was considering a more high profile target this time. New Delhi was discounted as being too insignificant to the world at large. Somewhere else. The Western World, perhaps. Striking the United States was tempting, since they were the most powerful nation in the world and could potentially put up the most resistance. However, destroying a major city there would only slow the ease of transition to his rule, since it would undoubtedly have a devastating effect on their economy. And there was the fact he had already struck a target in that hemisphere. Something in Europe then. It was becoming a decayed old husk and would have to be changed extensively in any case. He had never liked the French; they were too self-important for a country that had never managed to accomplish anything. The Germans tended to make a nuisance of themselves every few generations. Or there were always the British. Isolated on an island, destruction there would have a more limited effect on the mainland, while bringing home the point that Europe was not immune to the Mandarin' hand of death. And they had never truly been conquered by anyone. There was definitely an appeal there.  
  
"So many targets, so much opposition. Who should fall next?"  
  
"How about you?"  
  
The Mandarin spun around in anger at the unfamiliar voice, raising his left hand, intent on burning the stranger to a crisp. However, upon seeing who the speaker was, he hesitated.  
  
That was the only opening Giant Man needed as he grew. Forced to keep his height under four meters, due to the ceiling, he still was able to grow tall enough for his fist to close the distance between he and the Mandarin. His blow slammed cleanly into his foe's body. Flames shot out from one of the Mandarin's rings, scorching the side of the hallway as he went sailing backward out of Giant Man's reach.   
  
Giant Man looked at his handiwork in satisfaction. "That's for trying to cut me to pieces."  
  
Despite the clean blow backed by such tremendous force, the Mandarin was able to roll with the punch, and the dragon scale armor absorbed much of the damage. He was quick to regain his bearings. Using his left hand to rise off the floor, he brought his right hand up, unleashing the impact beam. The shot struck Giant Man with enough force to hurt him despite his mass.  
  
With a moment's reprieve, the Mandarin stood up and raised his left hand once more. He would use electricity this time, followed by another burst of flame. Then perhaps some ice to cool his opponent off. Say, a cocoon of it five feet thick?  
  
"Let's see if you can get this dying concept right this time," the Mandarin said. A split second before he could unleash a blast of electrified death, he caught the sight of something small flying in front of his face. It appeared to be a tiny girl with wings. "What are you?"  
  
"I'm Wasp!" she shouted right before blasting him between the eyes with her sting.   
  
The Mandarin shouted in pain. It was great enough that he lost his balance and fell down once again.  
  
That allowed Giant Man to recover some of his wind. "Out of the way, Wasp, he's mine."  
  
"Watch out for his rings. One of them was crackling right before I shot him."  
  
"Got it." Giant Man grabbed the Mandarin in his huge hands. He made certain both of the man's dangerous arms were firmly pinned to the side before exerting enough force to drive the air from the smaller man's lungs.  
  
"Fools, my power resides in more than just my rings!" the Mandarin gasped out, glowing in a blue haze as hot chi emanated from his body.   
  
Giant Man cried out in pain at having his hands burnt in similar fashion to what the Fixer had done. But this time he maintained enough concentration to keep his grip firm. Instead he drove the Mandarin upward, ramming the villain's head into the stone ceiling of the passageway.  
  
Unable to defend himself, the Mandarin suffered the full effect of the impact. He was too dazed to maintain his fiery aura, though he had not yet been driven to unconsciousness. "Come too far to lose," he swore through his haze.  
  
Giant Man brought him downward, and prepared to ram his head into ceiling again.  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Swordsman was surprised to discover he was tormented by a malady only lesser people suffered: he was second guessing himself. Ordinarily he always made the right choices. He was Tatewaki Kunou, by definition he was always right. Through the majority of his life he had been surrounded by people who always told him so, and he had paid them well to make sure they stayed around to confirm that fact. That information enabled him to go through life secure in the knowledge he was smarter, better looking, stronger, and richer than anyone else. Of course he always made the right choices. He was perfect.  
  
But then his father and sister had disappeared one right after another. Tragic accidents to be certain, and he mourned their losses continually. But then he learned they were no accidents, as someone tried to have him killed in a blatant assassination attempt. A trio of men, trained extensively in the art of war and encased in power armor, broke into his home and attempted to snuff out his life. They would have succeeded had it not been for the fact that he had released into his care his sister's prototype KTK-1103B, and had decided to practice kendo with the impressive piece of hardware. In his expert hands, with its offensive capabilities, he summarily defeated the assassins wearing the so-called 'Raider' armor, just as they had undoubtedly done to the rest of his family.   
  
A quick search of his father's private data files, the ones with information gathered and paid for through a bit of illicit industrial espionage courtesy of a mysterious figure known only as Spymaster, had revealed the Raider armor had been built and owned by an American Company called Cordco, which had been bought out in a takeover by a Japanese company that had been making it a habit of hostilely taking over many companies, especially those involved in weapon technologies.  
  
Companies like Kunou Industries.  
  
Suspicions aroused, Tatewaki dug further. A quick search indicated that Cordco had only been successfully taken over when its owner, Janice Cord, had been murdered by her uncle Edwin. The man claimed it was a set up, though the evidence against him was considerable. Despite not getting along, both owner and uncle had been united in their staunch resistance against the takeover. However, with them removed, opposition gave way and the takeover was easily accomplished.   
  
Years of listening to his father's blathering about how business was run had left something of an impression on Tatewaki. Even he could see how the removal of the Kunou family would simplify buying out Kunou Industries. No doubt he had been targeted next. But Tatewaki's mind was like a steel trap. He would easily circumvent their pitiful (but highly annoying) murder attempts by disappearing himself, thereby preventing them from trying to kill him.   
  
So, taking the KTK-1103B with him, Tatewaki went out in one of his sports cars and drove off. After traveling halfway up the coast. He found a secluded spot, put a dummy in his place in the driver's seat, and sent the vehicle careening off the edge of some random cliff into the ocean. It was brilliant. With his death faked, he wouldn't have to worry about anyone trying to kill him.  
  
Except no one had ever found the car, and therefore he had never been declared dead. He had tried calling the police about a 'car going over the edge of a cliff,' and for them to dredge it up, but he had forgotten where he had ditched the vehicle. The police, simpletons that they were, thought it was a crank call and had never bothered to investigate. So it was Tatewaki found himself declared missing instead of dead, and with no way of correcting anyone without revealing he was alive and becoming a target once again.  
  
And then Tatewaki had discovered another drawback to his plan; he had virtually no money, just what he had on his person, and that was spent quickly. He couldn't access any funds from the company. Any activity in his accounts would indicate he was alive and the assassins could come after him. So he was forced to seek employment, something he only had a passing familiarity with, and even then it was only in the sense that he knew employed people, rather than having been employed himself.  
  
Unable to find any openings for rich heirs to tremendous fortunes, Tatewaki was forced to rely on his inherent abilities to forge out a living. Since he was good with a sword, and actually enjoyed showing off his skills, he had decided to teach kendo. Only he couldn't afford a dojo, and no one would just give him one. It was most frustrating.  
  
Then he saw his first superhero on television. Visions of fame, glory, and unlimited wealth filled his head. He would show the world the greatness of Tatewaki Kunou... just without showing the world he was Tatewaki Kunou. Since he had decided to embark on the course of a superhero, he would need a flashy outfit to go along with his tremendous sword skills. Completely out of funds, he helped himself to a closed costume shop by destroying the door with his sword. He had no doubt that once he became famous the owner of the shop would pay him an impressive sum of money for the honor of garbing the greatest super hero to walk the planet. Only when Tatewaki looked through the shop, all of the samurai outfits were gone. He was forced to improvise by wearing a rather tasteful musketeer costume that was appropriate for his flamboyant style, at least until he could get a decent samurai outfit.   
  
Just as he had finished picking out a mask, the police arrived. Tatewaki tried to explain how he was doing the owner a favor by wearing the outfit, but the police had the audacity to accuse him of stealing! Unable to bear the insult, Tatewaki easily knocked both of them out. Regrettably, they had the foresight to call for backup, and he was forced to render a half dozen officers insatiate.   
  
Tired from dealing with idiotic authorities, Tatewaki took an advance in his pay from the costume shop's safe and found a decent hotel to sleep in. However, upon turning on the television and hearing the news the next day, he discovered he had been mislabeled a super villain, which the authorities referred to generically as 'The Swordsman.' That infuriated him to no end, since he had been intent upon calling himself 'The Silver Samurai' once he found a suitable set of silver armor to wear.  
  
Highly offended, Tatewaki departed the hotel, in costume, intent on clearing his good name. Along the way he encountered an elderly woman being accosted by someone trying to steal her purse. It was a simple matter to dispatch the would-be thief. However, when Tatewaki demanded a reward, the woman hit him in the head with her purse and told him only a rotten jerk would shake down an old lady for money. He explained to her that he was a superhero and it was his just due. Her response was to tell him real heroes didn't ask for money and that he wasn't a real one anyway, like that Daredevil hunk.  
  
The incident made Tatewaki seethe. No money? Half the reason for becoming a hero was for money. The other half was to demonstrate his brilliance to the world.   
  
Annoyed that his ideas were not bearing fruit, he became further frustrated when the police came upon the scene and attempted to arrest him yet again. They also made matters worse by continuously referring to him as the 'Swordsman.'. They weren't interested in hearing how he was actually the victim from the fight last night --or that he wanted to be called Silver Samurai-- so he was once again forced to render the authorities insensate.  
  
But then his luck took a turn for the better. Upon the conclusion of the fight, Tatewaki was just starting to walk away when a limousine pulled up alongside him and offered him a ride. Delighted at being treated in the manner he was properly due, he accepted the offer. Once inside, it was revealed to him that they were men who worked for a 'businesswoman' called Mantis, and that she wished to contract Swordsman's services for a significant sum of money.  
  
Tatewaki, now resigned to calling himself Swordsman, quickly accepted. The men drove him to the Chinese section of Tokyo, much to his surprise. From there he was taken to an exclusive underground garage, and then escorted by the men to a private elevator that led to an interior that was easily as tasteful, and expensive, as the furnishings at Kunou Manor. Finally they arrived at their true destination as he was directed to an opulent bedchamber where an incredibly attractive Chinese woman resided. Or she would have been incredibly attractive, save for the fact she had to be at least thirty. Tatewaki Kunou, age seventeen, was only interested in girls about his own age. Besides, the woman reminded him of his dear departed mother, except for the two peculiar locks of hair that stood up slightly, then bent forward almost like antenna.  
  
The beautiful woman introduced herself as Mantis and dismissed the men who had escorted Swordsman there. She lit several sticks of incense, and posed seductively for him. Every word was a purr, and held a throaty rasp that would have made lesser men fall to their knees had she so ordered.   
  
But Tatewaki Kunou, the Swordsman, was no lesser man. He could tell that she had fallen for his charms, despite the mask he wore. It was no surprise to him, since every woman he met could not but help be impressed by his strength of character, his virtue, and his manliness. He would have been tempted had she not been so much older. But since she was, he refused her advances, much to her surprise. Later, after he had worked with her on several occasions, she said something curious about his ego being the only one that was so tremendous that it rendered him immune to the effects of her Aphrodisiac Incense.   
  
Seduction failing, Mantis immediately offered Swordsman a job to 'recover' a few items of hers that had been stolen by a gang of thieves who had a hideout by the docks. Since this damsel was in distress, and since the sum of money was impressive, Tatewaki readily agreed to help take care of the miscreants and recover the stolen items. He and a small band of men --whom Swordsman thought of as nothing but a bunch of thugs-- went to the hideout and proceeded to storm it. It turned out it was an operation run by a group of men in identical garish yellow costumes., who all wore the same stupid looking yellow buckets on their heads, with only a wire mesh grill to look out. The men, who Swordsman's compatriots referred to as A.I.M., proved little problem, however, the small army of various androids they employed was very powerful. Swordsman was forced to use all of his blade's various functions and his best techniques to destroy them.   
  
Upon successfully completing his mission and recovering the stolen goods, which were highly advanced weapons oddly enough, Mantis once again attempted to reward Swordsman by offering her body. Again he refused, doubly surprising her. She gave him a bonus for doing such an effective job, and offered him the second most opulent room in the building, which was next to hers.   
  
It proved to be a sound decision on her part, as the base cads of A.I.M. attempted to steal back their ill-gotten gains and kill Mantis as well. Once again Swordsman employed his unique talents to dispatch the killer robots and attack vehicles before they could bring harm to his employer.  
  
After changing her base of operations (of which she had over a dozen spread out through the city), Mantis offered him a contract to work exclusively for her. He readily accepted. For the next few months, he found himself being sent out to 'recover' or 'acquire' items for Mantis (and she seemed to want a great many odd or expensive things), usually breaking in to some facility or other that had heavy defenses which he would be forced to destroy. Fortunately the pay, as well as the home, expensive food, and fine clothing she gave him were more than enough recompense for his trouble. It was after the seventh such job he participated in when he caught a news program claiming that the very jewels he had 'acquired' from an armored car had actually been 'stolen' from the armored car.  
  
Swordsman immediately confronted Mantis with the news. "Did you realize that those jewels actually belong to someone else?"  
  
"Not anymore," she purred.   
  
"But that's stealing."  
  
Mantis gave him a curious look. "Of course, my ever so long and powerful Swordsman," she emphasized the last word. "What did you think I meant when I told you to acquire them for me?"  
  
"I was under the impression that they were actually yours to begin with and you wanted me to retrieve for you."  
  
"When I say I want you to 'acquire' something for me, it's just a polite way of saying I want you to steal it."  
  
"No?!"  
  
Mantis's look changed to open confusion. "Swordsman, you do understand that I'm the biggest Chinese crimelord in all of Eastern Japan, correct?"  
  
"Do you mean to say you engage in illegal activities?   
  
"I've been having you steal weapons, drugs, and money for me for a couple of months now."  
  
"And your gambling casinos, bordellos, protection services, and arms deals are not legal enterprises?"  
  
"Of course not!"  
  
"I feel so misled," Swordsman admitted.  
  
Mantis sighed. She walked up to the Swordsman and maneuvered behind him. Slowly she ran her hands over his body, making certain they dwelled longest in the most sensitive areas. "When I took you in, you were only a penny ante thief who was going to get nailed by the cops for lifting cash registers. I made you into something bigger." Her voice became softer as she purred into his ear, "Admit it, you like all of this. I know your kind, Swordsman. You were bored before you met me. You were idle rich, I could smell it from the moment I laid eyes on you. Ennui settled over you, even if you were unaware of it. You never earned a yen on your own. Everyone always gave everything to you and you never batted an eye."  
  
She moved away from him, spinning in a seductive dance to a tune only she could hear. "But now you're different. Now you're happy to risk your life dancing on the edge of the abyss. You get a thrill when people try to kill you, and it's only the inherent skills you've honed to razor sharpness that keeps you alive. Every yen you've made, no matter how ill-gotten it is, you've earned, unlike everything else that's been handed to in your life. You love the lifestyle of the illicit and powerful. You can do things society would never allow you to do. That, Swordsman, is what true power is about. To do what you want, when you want, the consequences be damned."  
  
Swordsman considered that. Over the last few months he had been simply reacting to situations rather than thinking about them. But now that Mantis pointed it out, he took a step back. Much to his astonishment, everything she said had been true. Impossible though it seemed, he was much happier being forced to rely on his skills rather than leading the life of the idle rich. True, he had originally left his former existence to save his life rather than find adventure, but that was what had happened. He liked doing things he would never have dared as a law-abiding citizen. And the ill-gotten money he was earning meant he could continue living the extravagant lifestyle which he was accustomed. He was delighted with the life of the outlaw. It was fun.   
  
At that moment he decided to remain as he was, a hired sword for a beautiful woman, protecting her from danger at every turn. Even when his sister turned up alive, he chose to remain the handsome, suave, and mighty Swordsman, rather than once again continuing his dreary existence as the incredibly bored and under-appreciated Tatewaki Kunou.  
  
His relationship with Mantis remained at arm's length, with the poor (older) woman all but a slave to trying to gain his attentions. Then there came a day when she informed him that an old acquaintance of hers was calling in a favor. It seemed he needed super-powered muscle to protect some of his interests at a critical juncture, and that a tremendous reward would be offered to Swordsman, as well as a sizable one for Mantis herself. When Swordsman was informed his payment would be control over a significant portion of Japan, he jumped at the opportunity. Curiously, Mantis had turned down the offer, saying she much preferred manipulating events from the shadows, and was content to allow Swordsman to actually control the land himself. So without any preamble, he journeyed to the airport at the appointed time to meet his new employer, who would bestow upon Swordsman a mantle he was truly worthy of.  
  
Or at least that was what he had thought until a quarter of an hour ago.  
  
Until now, no one had ever truly been hurt because of Swordsman's action. He had always been careful not to cripple or kill; that would have been beneath him, though knaves like Daredevil and Captain Japan sorely pressed him at times. But now his employer had killed more people in a single moment than anyone else in the history of the world without a second thought. The full impact of that made Swordsman wonder if he had truly embarked on the right course after all. True, he would be given control over most of Japan, as was his due, for he was a born leader, but the cost...  
  
The sounds of battle stirred Swordsman out of his reverie. Grateful for the reprieve, he rushed to the clamor. In a handful of moments he arrived at a scene that almost made him release his sword. His employer, the Mandarin, was being tossed around like a small, abused, unwanted doll by a man who was truly colossal in dimensions. It was obvious the Mandarin was helpless to do anything, as evidenced by his head being driven into the ceiling by the towering foe.   
  
For a moment, Swordsman hesitated, despite his duty being clear. Here was a chance to break free of the Mandarin's schemes and atone for all of the deaths that had occurred. It wouldn't even be his fault. He'd just allow events to happen as they would had he not been present. All guilt could be laid aside as the Mandarin met the fate he probably richly deserved.  
  
But with the Mandarin's defeat, all that promised power would be lost as well. There was a price to be paid should he take that course. Japan would suffer immensely, just as it was now with no end in sight. Only with taking the mantle of leadership could there be hope for the masses. Once in charge, he would single-handedly put an end to corruption and wrongdoing. He could be like the Emperor of old, or at least a powerful Daimyo, a true leader whom all could aspire to be, though they would ultimately fall short of their goal. Still, emulating him could only make them better people. They would all be happy as the proper castes were reinstated, and all would be grateful for the new golden era he would bring. In return for bequeathing such greatness to them, he would be paid proper tribute by the populace. They would bestow upon him wealth and respect. He could have the largest collection of concubines the world had ever seen. Wouldn't it all be worth the sacrifice? Some bad in the short term for long term good?  
  
The Mandarin's eyes fell on his subordinate. "Help," he called out as his head lolled slightly.  
  
Before Swordsman could reconsider his actions he brought his sword up and unleashed a power blast directed at the Giant Man's jaw. The blast hit dead on, and the hero released his hold on the Mandarin. Both fell to the ground, where they tried hard to return to their feet. Neither fared very well.  
  
Swordsman swaggered forward. "So, my overlarge foe. You sought to invade this citadel and commit treachery upon its master. But you have been laid low by the ever resourceful, dashing, handsome... is that a little girl with wings?"  
  
Wasp unleashed a blast directly at Swordsman's body. He crumpled to the ground, in tremendous pain. But despite the near overloading of his senses, years of training allowed him to instinctively maintain a firm grip on his weapon.   
  
"If you hurt Giant Man, I'll make you sorry," Wasp said crossly as she aimed at Swordsman again and unleashed another of her stings.  
  
Mostly by reflex rather than conscious thought, Swordsman brought his sword up and parried the blast.   
  
Before Wasp could fire a third time, she found herself hammered by a vortex of air. It caught her from behind and hurled her into a wall. Weakly she fluttered to the ground.  
  
"That will teach you, insect!" Mandarin snarled as he returned to his feet.   
  
"Wasp!" Giant Man shouted. The shock of seeing her injured allowed him to focus enough concentration to rise to his feet. Even Akane would have been taken aback by the fury in his eyes, a look promising violence to the those who had dared attack the woman he loved.   
  
The Mandarin's response was to glow blue and shout out, "Rising Dragon's Fist!" He shot up like a human missile and impacted a powerful fist solidly into Giant Man's midsection, knocking the wind completely out of him. Before the hero could rise again, the Mandarin employed his Electro Ring, sending enough electricity coursing through his opponent to knock him out cold.  
  
Now recovered and full of rage, the Mandarin brought his disintegrator ring up and prepared to use it on the fool who had dared lay his hands upon him. But at the last moment he turned it away, and instead encased the lower half of Giant Man's body in ice nearly a meter thick.  
  
He turned to Swordsman, who was only now recovering from the Wasp's sting. "I've selected my next target."  
  
"Oh?"  
  
"Since these so called heroes have insisted on calling attention to their pitiful island nation, they shall have it. Tokyo shall be next."  
  
Swordsman stammered out, "But I'm to rule Japan. That would include Tokyo."  
  
"I'll give you some of Indonesia," the Mandarin said in compromise. "And I'm not waiting to deliver a second ultimatum. The moment the satellite is recharged, I'm firing. Japan must pay, and that giant fool will learn the price of defying me. Once he learns he was responsible for killing so many people, I'll kill him and that flying girl." The Mandarin looked around. "Where is she anyway?"  
  
Swordsman also visually scanned the area. "I don't see her."  
  
"Blast! My vortex beam must not have struck her fully, or she was more durable than I believed." A haunted expression crossed the Mandarin's features. "Perhaps she has gone to free the others. Quickly, go down to the normal prisoners' cell and make sure they are still secure." He brought up his communicator. "Tarou, Elektra, be advised, there is a centimeter tall, flying girl who can shoot energy from her hands. She is extremely dangerous. Don't bother trying to capture her. Kill her on sight. Speed Demon, Power Man, make certain Thor and the piglet are secure as well."  
  
The speaker crackled as Speed Demon's voice came from the communicator. "We... ah, just came from the holding area."  
  
"Why are you... For your sake you'd better not have molested my woman."  
  
"Nonononono! We didn't lay a hand on her."  
  
"You'd better not have. That one is going to be the mother of my children. If anything was to happen to her, you would be made very sorry. However, as long as she's secure, you have nothing to fear."  
  
"She's... ah, secured."  
  
"Good."  
  
xxxxxxxxxxx  
  
"Secured her escape, you mean," Power Man said after Speed Demon turned off the communication's link.   
  
"We shouldn't bother the boss with such minor details, especially since it's obvious he's agitated. We'll just catch her and the pig, throw them back in there, and everything will be all right. You'll see."  
  
"I've got a bad feeling about this," Power Man said miserably.   
  
The two hurried from the area and began to search around. Speed Demon chose not to institute a high speed search, mostly because he was afraid of finding Thor without Power Man to help out.  
  
They had been searching for less than fifteen minutes when they spotted something. Not the object of their search, but another thing that had captured their attention almost as thoroughly as if it was.  
  
"Hey, you! Stop right there!" Power Man shouted at the intruder, who looked suspiciously like an ordinary Japanese high school student.  
  
The girl gave them a panicked look, gasped "Oh no!", and began hobbling off. Within three steps she rounded the corner and out of their sight.  
  
Power Man was about to rush after the intruder when Speed Demon placed a restraining hand on his chest. "What?"  
  
Speed Demon gave his companion a sly look. "Don't be so quick to run after her."  
  
"Why? It's just some girl. She's not dangerous."  
  
"Ah ha!" Speed Demon held his finger up, as if Power Man had made his point for him. "Don't you find it the least bit peculiar that some innocent looking Japanese school girl with a really bad limp just happens to appear in the fortress as if from nowhere and we just happened to spot her?"  
  
Power Man scratched his head in thought. "Well, now that you mention it, it does seem a bit odd. And she was holding a piglet. It wasn't the one we're looking for since it's black, not green, and about a hundred pounds less than the other one."  
  
"Do you know what I think?"  
  
"No. I'm not telepathic. If I was, I would, though."  
  
"I think it's a trap. I think she's only pretending she's afraid, but is in fact a super hero. I bet she's going to act all scared like she's intimidated by us, and when we get overconfident, she'll hit us with her superpower and knock us out."   
  
"Wow! That makes perfect sense. How did you know?"  
  
"The limp. She overdid it with the limp. That's a clear sign of bad acting."  
  
"Hah! She thought she'd play us for fools, but we sure outsmarted her."  
  
They both laughed heartily at the foolishness of their opponent.  
  
Once the bout of levity had passed, Power Man asked, "What should we do?"  
  
"Follow cautiously. She'll tip her hand eventually. Then we'll get her."  
  
So the duo began to discreetly follow the path the girl had taken.  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
As Akane limped off as best as she could, she looked over her shoulder again. Sure enough, the two villains were poking their heads around the corner, watching her flee. She couldn't understand what game they were playing, tormenting her as though she stood some chance of escaping. They were cruel beyond measure to engage in such sadistic behavior. If only she could find her cane, then she would make them pay for this humiliation.  
  
She turned yet another corner of the seemingly endless array of stone corridors that composed the fortress. It was like a giant maze and she was the rat, though in her case finding the piece of 'cheese' would enable her to level the fortress. With the way she had fled mindlessly away from the pair, and some of the rooms she passed, she was certain she was running in circles again, and was heading once more toward the room she had awakened in.  
  
Leg throbbing, Akane found she could run no further. She looked down at the innocent piglet in her arms. He gave her a wide-eyed stare that nearly broke her heart. No matter what happened to her, she would make sure that the poor creature escaped the evil Mandarin's clutches.   
  
She turned to look down the hall. The pair still hadn't poked their heads around the latest passageway. She chose a door next to her and opened it up. It was some sort of storage room. Wooden crates filled it to the ceiling, and there appeared to be a healthy quantity of dust on the floor.   
  
Relieved, Akane put the pig down. She placed her hand on his backside and shoved him into the room. He turned and gave her a panicked stare. He was concerned for her. It was so sweet. It was a pity she couldn't have kept him as a pet. "Don't worry, Mr. Pig, you'll be safe in here for now. I'll lead them away, and you try to escape later." It was obvious from his insistent, "Bwee!" that he would try to follow, so she quickly closed the door behind her.  
  
Tears filled her eyes. "Good bye, Mr. Pig." And she tried hurrying away as best as she could, her pain encumbered limb forcing her to use the wall to help prop her up.  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
"See? She waited in the hall until we caught up. She's luring us into something. I can feel it," Speed Demon said as he poked his head around the wall again.  
  
"Very tricky," Power Man agreed.   
  
Their communicators buzzed again. "Report!" the Mandarin barked.  
  
Speed Demon said, "We're following a superhero around."  
  
"One of them is free? Which one?" the Mandarin asked.  
  
"A new one. The trickiest of them all. She's dressed like a normal Japanese school girl, and walks around with a limp."  
  
"What powers does she have?"  
  
"We don't know. She hasn't shown them. She just walks around like she's afraid of us. But we're outsmarting her. We're following just out of sight, using the walls as cover. So far we haven't given her the opportunity to blast us."  
  
There was a moment of silence on the communicator. Then a voice as frozen as the block of ice said, "Let me get this straight. There's a stranger in the fortress. A helpless one with a limp who you've been following around mindlessly while not trying to impede her progress in the slightest?"  
  
"Got it right the first time, Boss."  
  
"Then why don't you capture her and FIND OUT WHO SHE IS SINCE IT'S OBVIOUS SHE'S NOT A THREAT, YOU MORONS?!"  
  
"But she might be super powered and is setting us up in a trap."  
  
"IT'LL BE FAR WORSE IF YOU DON'T CAPTURE HER AND I GET MY HANDS ON YOU TWO!"  
  
"Watch the blood pressure, Boss. You don't want to get a heart attack at the moment of your greatest triumph," Power Man warned.  
  
The communicator issued one final unintelligible cry, and then dead silence followed.   
  
"I bet you he destroyed his communicator again," Speed Demon said.   
  
"No bet. We'd better get that girl before he does get his hands on us."  
  
The two rounded the corner, seeing the girl nearing the end of the 'T' junction at the end of the hall. Speed Demon sucked up his courage and ran quickly, ending up in front of her in the blink of an eye. The girl gave a cry and came to an abrupt halt. Speed Demon saw Power Man hurrying up the corridor to provide him with backup. Relieved, he said, "All right, you're under arrest. I mean, you're captured because you're a trespasser. Hey, where's the pig?"  
  
Speed Demon saw that just as Power Man passed in front of a door to some unused storage room, a green blur shot out of it, tearing the door of its hinges as it impacted solidly with Power Man. The small ball of porcine might struck Power Man with the force of a cannon. Both were driven clean through a couple layers of stone thickened walls and out of sight.   
  
"Ah, it's the Hulk!" Speed Demon ran back to see if he could help his friend in any way.  
  
Akane, given a reprieve, didn't even bother to turn around at the sounds of battle. Until she found her stick, she would just be a liability to anyone trying to rescue her. So she hurried off once again.  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Power Man found himself under assault by the bouncing piglet. The small creature's blows, while individually not so bad, hurt like hell once they added up. Worse, the initial attack had disoriented him badly enough that he didn't have time to even catch his breath. All he needed was a moment, then he'd make pork rinds out of the Hulk, even if it did go against the Mandarin's orders.  
  
Power Man got his break as Speed Demon appeared in a blur directly in front of the mean green ball of muscle. "You know what I had to eat today?" the speedster asked.  
  
The piglet shook his head.  
  
"Baconbaconbaconbaconbacon!" he stuck his tongue out and began dancing around.  
  
The mocking dance enraged the Incredible Bwee and he launched himself at Speed Demon. The speedster proved too quick as he was out of the way before the piglet had risen more than a couple of centimeters off the ground. The leap only succeeded in punching a hole through yet another wall.  
  
As Bwee leapt back through, destroying another section of wall, Power Man snatched him out of the air. With a tiger-like roar he unleashed a savage hook under Bwee's tiny chin and blasted him through the third wall of the room to be destroyed.   
  
Power Man looked in satisfaction at the hole that had been left behind. "That takes care of that."  
  
Speed Demon spoke hesitantly, "Say, Power Man."  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"What's behind that wall you just knocked the pig through?"  
  
"Nothing much. It's a large open area; the Boss's private bath. You know, the one with the Olympic size pool that connects with the hot springs beneath the fortress."  
  
"Yeah, that's where I thought it led," Speed Demon sighed as a now human, and fully enraged Hulk, exploded through the wall, sending pieces of stony shrapnel in all directions and forcing Speed Demon to use Power Man's body for cover.  
  
The Hulk's muscles bulged and his hands curled into anvil-like fists. Spittle flew from his mouth as he shouted, "Where is Not-So-Little-Man who dared to hit Hulk?! Now that Hulk is big again, Hulk will smash!"  
  
"Oh boy," Power Man said as he prepared for the fight of his life.  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Swordsman cocked his head curiously. "How peculiar. I could have sworn I heard an explosion." He supposed it didn't concern him. Odd things seemed to happen regularly in this fortress.   
  
After wandering lost for the last few minutes, Swordsman finally located the chamber holding the prisoners. He supposed his detour was just as well; the time spent walking had cleared his head. With the Mandarin's stated intent of destroying Tokyo, a dark depression had settled upon him. He couldn't remember feeling this despondent since he believed his family was dead. It wasn't fair. If a handful of cities in some far off lands had to be destroyed, fine, they were filled with nothing but gaijin anyway. However, Tokyo was different. It was his home. He knew people who lived there. It wasn't right they should be punished for the interference of a handful of their countrymen that had made the fatal error of angering the future ruler of the world.   
  
"But there's no way out," Swordsman sighed as he pressed a button. The door to the chamber hissed as it rose into the doorframe. Looking inside revealed all was as it should be. The heroes were chained up, and Iron Rose was still fastened to the table, the spider-like instrument attached firmly to her helmet.  
  
"Come to gloat some more?" Bucky spat.  
  
Swordsman entered. "Truly you are a woman of unsurpassed beauty and spirit. If only we had met under better circumstances. I bear grim tidings. The Mandarin is intent on destroying Tokyo next. The attacks launched upon his person have sent him into an ill-directed rage."  
  
"No!" Hawkeye twisted in her bonds as Daredevil had earlier, gaining only the same results.   
  
Bucky also strained her body to the limit, threatening to break her wrists. "No way! We've got to stop him from killing again!"  
  
Seeing such a display of courage from the girl made Swordsman's resolve firm. "Indeed. I shall petition the Mandarin to change his mind, pointing out correctly that while vermin such as Daredevil might have been spawned in Japan--"  
  
"Actually I'm Chinese."  
  
"There you have it," Swordsman said. "There is much greatness in Japan, for after all, is it not the land of my birth? And if it could produce excellence such as myself, surely it could also prove to create others who, while not as magnificent as my own personage, would be better than the majority of humanity."  
  
"By the gods, you remind me of my brother," Iron Rose muttered from her prone position.  
  
Swordsman smirked. "Truly he must be a man of unsurpassed elegance."  
  
"Actually he was a pompous twit who treated me like excess baggage. I could barely tolerate him."  
  
"Hmph! Undoubtedly if you are willing to besmirch his good name, he was burdened to have you as a sister. My own is much more polite than you and knows her place, as is befitting a Japanese woman. Obedience above all."  
  
"Oh, shove it up your !#$%!" Iron Rose spat.  
  
"And she never swore," Swordsman added solemnly. "I go now in an effort to spare our homeland from such a miscarriage of justice. I will implore the Mandarin to reconsider, and I'd advise you to curb your tongues. If all goes well, I'll ask him to listen to you pleas for our homeland to be spared from his wrath. Perhaps we'll be fortunate, and he'll listen to your petition. I think it our only hope."  
  
"You could always free us and we could kick his butt together," Hawkeye suggested.   
  
"I think not. I have little doubt you would turn on me, and do not bother giving me your word, for I know it to be worthless. And then there is the fact should the Mandarin be defeated, I would not be placed in charge of the majority of our land. No, petitioning my case is the best solution to the problem, I assure you of that. I take my leave now." And with that he exited the room.  
  
"I would sooner swallow my tongue than allow him to rule anything," Iron Rose vowed.  
  
"You might get your chance if we can't bust out of these restraints." Bucky tried to bring all of her muscles to bear as she strained to lift her legs and bring her arms down. With the super soldier serum flowing through her veins, she was as powerful as a woman her age could be. But still the bonds remained firm, although she could have sworn the right arm restraint had given slightly in with the last five minutes.  
  
"It looks like you need help," a disembodied feminine voice said.  
  
Everyone in the room looked around, trying to locate the source of the voice. All four of the people saw (or in Daredevil's case, sensed) a tiny figure flying in front of them. At first glance, they had assumed it was a tiny bug, but a second look revealed it was a tiny flying woman.   
  
"Who are you?" Hawkeye asked.  
  
"I'm called Wasp," she said. "I followed that Swordsman person here. Sorry I didn't come sooner, but I had no idea where you were. Giant Man was hurt, so we have to hurry and rescue him, as well as defeat that Mandarin person before he destroys my home. Let me see if I can free you."  
  
Wasp centered her attention on Bucky's restraints. They appeared as solid as the others, but a closer inspection revealed a hairline crack along the right one. Centering on it, she fired off a sting. The energy split open the armor along the seam. Seeing no similar defect on the other restraint, she was forced to focus all of her power into a second blast. Again the metal was torn asunder as the left hand came free. Wasp was going to fire a third time at the leg restraints, when a wave of weakness overcame her. She was forced to use what was left of her strength to pump her wings hard enough to flutter down to the floor. She sat down, thoroughly exhausted.  
  
With her hands free, Bucky quickly opened the locking mechanism on the leg restraints and freed herself. The first thing she did was go over to where Wasp had fallen. Bucky picked the girl up delicately, mindful not to crush her wings of hurt her in any way. "What's wrong?"  
  
"I feel a little dazed. I was hurled into a wall by a blast of air from that man with the rings. And using my blasts drain me over time. I think I'm more susceptible today since I had already been in a fight. "  
  
Bucky could just make out a little bit of blood matting on the tiny girl's forehead. "Yeah, you look pretty worn out. You stay here and rest while I free the others. You've done your part. And once we're all ready, we'll make that Mandarin creep pay."  
  
Declaration made, it took Bucky only seconds to free the rest of her compatriots.   
  
"That was stupid of them to leave our weapons nearby," Hawkeye said as she grabbed her bow and took inventory of the number of arrows remaining.   
  
Bucky swung her shield around a few times in order to loosen up. "Can you find where Thor and the Hulk are?" she asked Iron Rose. "Our chances of beating these guys quicker go up a whole lot with them around"  
  
Mournfully, Iron Rose said, "No. I'm afraid not."  
  
"Actually, I think at least one of them is free and fighting the enemy. I think it's the Hulk," Daredevil said as he finished donning his robes.  
  
"What makes you say that?"  
  
A loud rumble came from somewhere below to the left of the room, the vibrations easily felt through everyone's feet. "No reason," Daredevil said with an amused grin.  
  
"We need to find a computer," Iron Rose said.  
  
"Why?" Bucky asked.   
  
"If I can get to a terminal, I might be able to hack into the system and destroy or reroute the satellite."  
  
"Sounds like a plan," Hawkeye said.  
  
"What about Thor?" Bucky asked.   
  
Iron Rose magnified her vision to make certain Wasp was not too badly injured. "She's a big girl, I'm sure she can take of herself."  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Akane was beginning to panic. While she had left her pursuers far behind, the sounds of their titanic battle could be felt through the very walls of the fortress. The fight was so vicious it had made the area she was fleeing through dangerously unstable. Cracks had formed in the ceiling in many places, and on more than one occasion dust or pebbles had struck her on the head. Had her survival instincts been in better working order, she would have tried to find a way up and out of the fortress, but she felt certain her hammer was located somewhere on the floor she was now on. She knew the delay meant risking her life, but she had to find it. Life without the ability to transform into Thor was meaningless.   
  
Another piece of rock fell, this one striking her on the head hard enough to draw blood and make her lose her balance. She tried to grab onto the stone surface of the wall, but failed and fell to the floor, hurting her hip. Tears filled her eyes as she pounded the floor with her fist. It did even more damage to her flesh, another reminder of her pitiful state. She remained lying on her back, sobbing. It was hopeless. The ceiling would cave in at any moment and bury her alive. It was suicide to remain, but the siren call of the hammer sang in her ear, even if it was nowhere to be found. Everything was going to collapse and she would never be able to find the stick again. It wasn't fair!  
  
And then she saw it through the watery tears. It was just lying out in the open next tothe wall of one of the corridors. A plain wooden stick that was more valuable than all the money in the world to Akane. Now sobbing in happiness, she began to rise.  
  
Another loud rumble came from nearby, and Akane could swear she heard the Hulk bellow in rage. The shock was powerful enough to cause the already cracked ceiling directly above the stick to give way. Akane cried out in grief as a ton of rock collapsed over the stick, kicking up a dust cloud from the debris.   
  
The cloud moved past Akane, covering in a healthy coating of dirt. She fell to her knees, wracked with sobs as the cracks in the ceiling directly above her began to spread out. Slowly, she began to rise to her feet, barely able to summon the will to move. Vaguely she remembered a set of stairs leading up a few corridors back, though she wondered what was the point. It would be more merciful to remain where she was and share her fate with that of her alter ego who was forever beyond her.  
  
It was just as she turned to go that the dust settled enough to show that instead of being buried, two of the larger pieces of ceiling had collapsed in an upside down 'V', protecting the stick rather than burying it. Akane gave a cry of joy loud enough to rival that of the Hulk's earlier one of anger. Retrieving the stick would require a bit of maneuvering. There was a carpet of jagged rock between her and the goal, and she would be forced to crawl through the tunnel the fallen rock had formed, but her salvation was not beyond her reach.   
  
Course decided, Akane limped over as best as she could with both her leg and hip protesting at the movement. She ignored the pain and began making her way over the rock fall. Crawling over the debris was like traveling down a path of thorns. Sharpened edges of stone tore at her clothing and flesh. Scrapes and cuts soon covered every inch of her hands as she forced herself forward. She was unmindful of the danger and disregarded the pain. Blood began decorating the stone as her body inched painfully closer and closer to her goal.  
  
Akane squirmed forward, forcing herself between two pieces of rock wedged tightly together. She moved between them fairly well, but the rubble shifted, pinning her waist against the rock beneath it. It had only shifted slightly, pinning rather than crushing, but she was trapped all the same. She cursed aloud. If only she had been an inch thinner. It was times like this she wished she had narrower hips. No one ever made fun of them because of her condition, but she knew they were noticeably wide. Yet another of the numerous shortcomings she had.   
  
"Damn it," Akane gripped on tight to some rock and pulled with all her strength. She felt the jagged edge of one of the rocks force its way past flesh and dig deeply into her waist, filling her with a pain unlike any she had felt since the accident. Again she called on reserves of strength she didn't know she possessed. Her muscles strained and threatened to yield, but then she pulled forward, free of the trap around her midsection. She gave a cry out in joy until she felt a wetness spread through her dress. She knew the cut was far deeper than the others, but still she soldiered on. Her fingertips brushed once across the tip of the cane, and she gave a cry of delight.   
  
And then the ceiling of the level located directly above joined the one below as it gave way, sending five tons of debris directly towards her. With the earlier collapse, there was nothing to impede its progress as it came crashing down to the floor two levels below. The cloud of dust formed by the impact was ten times greater than the one that nearly buried the cane in the first place.  
  
And then there was silence.  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
"But I disagree," Swordsman said in a plaintive tone.  
  
"I did not ask for your opinion!" the Mandarin snapped. "Tokyo will be destroyed! If the Hulk is loose, I want him contained immediately! And I want the normal ones killed as well! I'm not taking any more chances!"   
  
"It's a bit late for that," Elektra said as she drew her twin sai and pointed down the corridor at the quartet of people who had approached them from behind.   
  
Hawkeye was on the point, had an arrow nocked, and was already pointing it directly in the middle of her adversaries. Bucky and Daredevil stood slightly behind the archer, while Iron Rose remained in the back.  
  
Tarou cracked his knuckles. "They aren't even worth getting some water out. I want Cleavage Girl."  
  
"I'll take--" Elektra started to say when Daredevil charged toward her with a swiftness that would have surprised everyone short of Speed Demon.   
  
"Tell me where Shan Pu is!" he shouted.  
  
"So much for him fighting Swordsman like we planned. Take them!" Bucky shouted and charged forward, accepting Tarou's challenge.  
  
Hawkeye fired an arrow at the Mandarin, only to have it sliced neatly in half by the Swordsman's weapon. "Here we go again," the archer grumbled.  
  
Iron Rose flew above the others to get a clear shot. She was met in mid-air by a bolt of lightning. Instead of the yellow blast shooting her down, she let out a hearty, "Ohhohoho! I can absorb electricity. All you've done is made me more powerful, you ring bearing fool. Now pay for the innocent lives you've killed!" She released her repulsor blasts.  
  
The Mandarin gracefully leapt above the beam. While in mid-air he unleashed a frigid blast of ice from his left and an impact beam from his right.   
  
Like the first shot, both were on target. The ice weighed down the armor, and the kinetic force of the impact beam knocked Iron Rose clean through a nearby wall.   
  
"Iron clad fool," he softly intoned.  
  
Daredevil was practically frothing at the mouth as he ran directly towards Elektra. Surprised at the undisciplined charge, she reacted by bringing up one of her sai to force him to break it off. She would use the opening to roll to the left and hopefully knock his feet out from under him.  
  
Much to her surprise, he didn't hesitate in the slightest. The sai went through the flesh above his hip, narrowly missing a kidney. He didn't react to the injury, continuing his forward charge and hitting Elektra full with his body. The blow made her drop her other weapon. With his superior strength and momentum, he easily drove her backward until she was pinned to the wall. He grabbed both of her arms and pinned them to her sides, effectively trapping her.   
  
"Tell me where she is!" he said, squeezing her powerfully.   
  
Elektra cringed in pain at the way his fingers dug into her flesh. He wasn't holding back. She was certain his grip would have broken the bones of anyone else.   
  
Daredevil drew her back just enough so that he could slam her against the wall a second time, making her head thump against the rock behind her. "Tell me now!"  
  
"I'll tell you," Elektra gasped out. She brought her head forward and kissed Daredevil fully on the lips.   
  
It was a savage, passionate thing, wild and untamed. The emotion behind it overwhelmed Daredevil, breaking through his haze of rage. His grip eased slightly.  
  
That was all Elektra needed to break out of his grasp and use the opening to drive her knee between his legs. The blow doubled Daredevil over. Elektra grabbed him by the back of the head, and rammed his face into the wall. Once, twice, a third time, then he went limp in her arms. She released him, wiping her lips with distaste.  
  
"I hope it was worth it, fool," she said, rolling him over to retrieve her weapon.  
  
Bucky winced as the first of their numbers fell, and then realized it was actually the second as Iron Rose still hadn't returned from being hurled through the wall. It was unfortunate that the Wasp girl had been too injured to keep fighting; her abilities might have tilted the odds in their favor. Instead they left her to help her unconscious comrade, first breaking him out of the ice before leaving her to revive him.   
  
As to Bucky's own fight, she found it going slightly worse than before. While she had long since grown comfortable fighting as a girl, and was a slightly faster in that form, Tarou's now far superior reach advantage negated any benefits she drew from her curse. It was a stalemate, at least until Tarou grew tired or he splashed himself with cold water. There was little Bucky could do about the latter, and the first was unacceptable since every second they lost was one more closer to the Mandarin razing another city.  
  
There was no way she could let that happen, but the odds of winning looked bleak. They had lost half their forces while the enemy lost none. It was a desperate situation, and it called for desperate measures.   
  
"I can't believe I'm actually considering this," Bucky mumbled under her breath. Then Tarou connected with yet another fist to her jaw. That served to settle the matter.   
  
Bucky spun in a circle, deflecting a fire burst from the Mandarin's rings, and left her back momentarily to the opposition. When she turned around, her shield was to the side as she thrust her chest forward, purring seductively, "Take a look at these, big boys."  
  
The Mandarin, Swordsman, and even Tarou stopped momentarily as Bucky revealed her impressive bounty, the remnants of her top having been ripped off and tossed aside during her spin.  
  
Bucky took advantage of the men's leering by unleashing a powerful kick right between Tarou's eyes, sending him flying backward and onto his back.  
  
Hawkeye, completely unmoved by the sight of a woman's chest, fired twin arrows at her closest opponents. Swordsman, drooling at the sight of Bucky's bared flesh, found his arms pinned to his side by a bolo arrow. Elektra, equally as unmoved as Hawkeye, ducked under the projectile.  
  
"This will stop me but a moment!" Swordsman declared. With a deft flick of his wrist he brought his sword up and snipped the wire confining his arms.   
  
"That's all I need," Hawkeye said as the archer loosed another arrow. With his sword occupied in slicing through his bonds, the blunt tip of the stunner arrow caught Swordsman right between the eyes. He fell to the ground like a marionette with its strings suddenly cut.  
  
Before Hawkeye could press her attack, she found a somersaulting Elektra leaping up and landing with a solid kick to the archer's chest. Hawkeye grunted, and fell backward, momentarily knocked off her feet.   
  
"So you have extra padding in your chest. A wise precaution," Elektra remarked.   
  
"Oh, shut up!" Hawkeye swore, barely rolling out of the way of a kick aimed at her skull.   
  
Hawkeye used her roll to spring to her feet in an impressive show of agility. She was about to loose another arrow, when she saw Elektra had anticipated the move. The assassin brought her sai forward even as the archer moved back. Superior reflexes were all that kept Hawkeye from having the weapon driven clean through her shoulder instead of the half-inch of steel that found its way there.  
  
Crying out in pain Hawkeye backed away, blood now decorating the point of the weapon. Elektra was prevented from pressing her advantage by the backfist delivered by the topless heroine. Bucky made certain to keep her body between the archer and assassin  
  
Elektra shook off the glancing blow and backed away. She smirked at Bucky while brandishing the bloodied sai. "Are you sorry you saved me now?"  
  
"No. I'm just disappointed in you," Bucky replied in earnest.   
  
The only response Elektra gave was to tremble slightly.  
  
With Elektra distracting Bucky, Tarou gained a second wind and rose to his feet. The right side of his face already puffing up from the kick. "I can't believe I fell for such a pathetic trick! I was going to keep you around as a plaything, tits, but now you're going to die!" Tarou went for a gourd at his belt.  
  
"Not this time!" Bucky threw her shield at the gourd.   
  
The disc was right on target, but a chi blast met it in mid-flight, deflected the shield wide. It bounced off a wall before landing right at Tarou's feet.   
  
"Nice try, but the only woman's chest I have an interest in belongs to a Goddess, and you most certainly do not qualify as such," the Mandarin stated.  
  
Tarou snickered and poured the contents of the gourd over his head. The cold water triggered his transformation into the A-bra-mination.   
  
Bucky and Hawkeye began to back away nervously. "I don't suppose you have some kind of fancy arrow designed to take out really big green monsters?"  
  
Hawkeye shook her head and winced, just knowing this was going to really hurt.  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxx  
  
The Hulk roared in rage as Speed Demon taunted him once again. It wasn't that the little man could injure him, but he said mean things that hurt the Hulk's feelings. They were really nasty comments, like that he was dumb, clumsy, used bad grammar, and couldn't score with women. But the worst thing the speedster had done was mess around with the Hulk's hair.  
  
"Hulk hates pig-tails more than anything! Hulk's enemy wears one!" he roared, and tried to untie the pig-tail once again.   
  
That left him open for yet another hard right from the recovered Power Man. The Hulk tried to retaliate, but despite the large man's size, Power Man was quicker. Worse, it was a completely defensive fight, meaning the warrior of the Musk would dodge six blows before trying for one of his own, and with a slightly better technique than 'Smash Opponent,' he was connecting with three blows for every one the Hulk landed.  
  
However the thickness of the Hulk's skin, his endurance, and most importantly his tremendous strength, gave the green goliath the advantage. Every blow he landed was five times more telling than any Power Man connected with. And the longer the fight went, the madder the Hulk got, and the more powerful his blows became.  
  
It would have been over already save for Speed Demon. Any time it seemed the Hulk had an advantage, the speedster would distract the Hulk by doing something that angered him so much that he would forget Power Man until the big man attacked again. It was getting to the point where Speed Demon's jibes were affecting the Hulk worse than Power Man's fists. He was beginning to wish the large Musk warrior would just go away so he could deal with the rambling loud mouth in relative peace.   
  
Power Man connected two more times before the Hulk caught his wrist in the middle of a third punch. Holding him in place, the emerald behemoth unleashed a mighty fist right into Power Man's midsection. He was about to hit him there again when a hot liquid substance was thrown into his eyes, momentarily blinding him.  
  
Power Man returned the favor by kicking the Hulk in his midsection. The blow made the jade giant release his grip and gave Power Man yet another chance to recover.   
  
The Hulk roared in anger and wiped the offending substance from his eyes. He was not surprised to see his personal bane, Speed Demon, there holding an empty pot and laughing. The Hulk bellowed in rage, then a scent hit his nostrils and he recoiled. "What is awful thing Hulk smells?"  
  
Speed Demon said, "Centurion Split Pea Soup. I use it to clean off my running shoes, since it's not good for anything else."  
  
"Hulk hates split pea soup more than anything!" he roared.   
  
"You said you hate pig-tails more than anything," Speed Demon pointed out.  
  
"They are different things. Hulk hates pig-tails more than any other hairstyle. He hates split pea soup more than any other soup. He hates the way corn gets stuck in his teeth more than any other food gets stuck in his teeth. And he hates Keanu Reeves acting most of any actor!"  
  
"Got to agree with you there. The guy's about as compelling to watch as a cardboard prop," Speed Demon agreed. "What's the color you hate the most?"  
  
"Fuchsia. Because it's really dark red, but people try to confuse Hulk and call red fuchsia. Hulk hates Fuchsia!"  
  
While bellowing out his hate list, the Hulk saw a blur in front of him and felt something tickle his chest. He blinked and saw a bunch of black squiggly lines on his chest. "What that?"  
  
"Like it?"  
  
The Hulk scratched his head. "Hulk not understand."  
  
"Can't you read?"  
  
"No."  
  
"It says 'Hulk likes Fuchsia. He wants his pants to look like that."  
  
"AHHHH!" The Hulk's blood was practically boiling. Wanting to lunge at Speed Demon, yet knowing it would do no good, made him even madder. He wished he could swat Speed Demon like a bug. In order to vent some of his anger, he visualized Speed Demon trapped in the palm of his hand, then brought his hands together as hard as he could.  
  
The resulting force of the impact sent a shockwave through the air in every direction in front of him. Unable to evade the wall of wind, Speed Demon found himself recoiling as though he had been struck a glancing blow from Power Man. Still conscious, but thoroughly stunned, the speedster lay insensate on the ground.   
  
The Hulk pointed and laughed. "Now who hates fuchsia?"  
  
The giant's amusement ended as he felt himself picked up from behind and held in mid-air. Without any leverage, he found himself spun around, then thrown violently through several walls.  
  
Power Man, heavily winded from throwing the Hulk, gasped as he helped Speed Demon to his feet. They looked at the hole the Hulk's form had created.   
  
Speed Demon said, "Hey, did he end up where I think he did?"  
  
"Looks that way," Power Man said.  
  
The two looked at each other, then nodded their heads in agreement. "RUN!"  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Bucky and Hawkeye had backed away only a handful of steps when a wind came from behind them. They turned around, and cringed once again as they found themselves hemmed in by Speed Demon.  
  
The speedster gasped out to his ruler, "I have good news and bad news."  
  
"Good news first," the Mandarin ordered.  
  
"The Hulk's been taken out."  
  
"That is good news," the Mandarin agreed.   
  
"The bad news is we did it by throwing him into the armory."  
  
The Mandarin paled, "You mean-"  
  
A tremendous explosion, like a thousand cannons going off, shook the fortress to its very foundations.  
  
"- the one where we were storing the missiles we decided we didn't need, since the laser system could down any aircraft that came too close. Wow! Are those titties? Can I feel them? I promise not to pinch or anything," Speed Demon asked as his attention became completely riveted to Bucky's chest.  
  
"How can things possibly get worse?" the Mandarin wailed.   
  
Mjolnir cut through the air like a missile, striking the A-bra-mination cleanly in the face and off his feet.  
  
"Thou must reckon with the Goddess of Thunder! Thy fate is now sealed!" Thor, looking as though she had dug her way through half the mountain, ran forward, catching Mjolnir in mid-run as it returned. Speed Demon got out of the way of the charging goddess as she struck the rising A-bra-mination hard in the jaw and sent him back to the ground.  
  
The Goddess of Thunder turned to her comrades. "My apologies for coming to the rescue so late, but I found myself in dire straits and was forced to..." she trailed off as her eyes settled on Bucky's topless state. Her relief at seeing her companions alive quickly changed to anger. She leveled an accusatory finger at the shorter girl. "Harlot! Hast thou no shame? Once again thou go traipsing about like a painted whore. No doubt thou sought to save thy life by offering thy body to these depraved minions of darkness."  
  
"I didn't offer nothin' to anyone!" Bucky shouted. "I was laying my ass on the line while you were playing rainmaker with your dumb hammer."  
  
"Obviously thou was laying more than thy bottom on the line."  
  
"Don't get angry with me just because my chest is better than yours."  
  
Thor took a step forward. "Take that back! I have a much better chest than thou!"  
  
A repulsor blast cleaved the air, separating the two. "We are losing focus here," Iron Rose said impatiently.  
  
Bucky turned on her. "Like you got room to talk after the Mandarin took you out with two little shots."  
  
"A thousand pardons," Iron Rose said sincerely. "The Mandarin's blast, while unpleasant, did not reduce my combat effectiveness significantly. However, the room I was knocked into had the very computers I had been looking for. Hoping you would be able to hold off the Mandarin and his lackeys for a few moments, I hooked up to the computer and found the necessary interface system to allow my armor to communicate with this alien technology."  
  
"So what did you find? Can you stop the satellite?" Bucky asked.  
  
Iron Rose shook her head. "I was unable to either alter either the route or the target of the satellite. Only the Mandarin can do that. However, I was able to locate its current position and path of travel, as well as discovering its current recharge rate. Unfortunately my armor's too big and heavy for me to fly there before it fires. I knew I should have taken the time to streamline the design, even if it meant sacrificing strength and protection for speed! Damn it all!" Iron Rose took a deep breath, then turned her attention to Thor. "How fast can you fly?"  
  
"I can make the air quake like thunder should I bring my full powers to bear."  
  
Iron Rose did a quick calculation in her head. "Yes, that should do it. I'll need you to fly me to the satellite so we can destroy it in time. With my jets adding to our flight, we should just make it."  
  
"But what of the villains?" Thor asked.  
  
Bucky said, "Only you guys can stop the satellite, and you gotta leave now. Don't worry about us. We'll take care of the rest of the bad guys."  
  
An animal cry of rage came from the A-bra-mination as he finally recovered enough from Thor's surprise beating to attack. He sprang up to his hooves and charged the heroes.   
  
"Would you please shut up?" Iron Rose disengaged her safety limiters on her repulsors. Aiming her palms at his head, she unleashed a pair of yellow beams of energy four times greater than any she had fired before.   
  
Electricity from Thor's hammer joined the assault and leapt to the A-Bra-Mination's body. This time when he went down he did not get back up.  
  
Wisps of smoke rose from Iron Rose's repulsors. "Now I'll definitely need you to carry me there, otherwise my repulsors will never recharge. I'm sure they will be by the time we get there, even if my boot jets are going at full burn." There was a hint of doubt in her voice, but at the same time it was obvious she thought there was no other alternative.  
  
Thor looked mournfully at her hammer. "And I did wish mightily to gain revenge upon the Mandarin. Is it so important to destroy this satellite?"  
  
It took Iron Rose a moment to realize Thor had not been present when the Mandarin had been bragging about his scheme. "It can create a thirty-five kilometer beam of destruction and Tokyo is its target."  
  
"We have to stop him!" Thor tapped her hammer twice upon the ground. A tremendous bolt of lighting erupted through the roof, striking the hammer. The path of the bolt served to blast a large hole through the multiple levels of the fortress to the air outside.   
  
The goddess detached her cape and handed it to Bucky. "Thou doth need raiment to protect thee from the chill."  
  
"Thanks." Bucky was actually moved by the gesture. She wrapped the cape around her upper chest, tying it off so while she still showed much of her midsection, her top and all that lay there was covered. "I'll be sure to give Mandy a good right for you."  
  
"Make it two rights and a left," Thor said as she picked up Iron Rose under one arm and spun her hammer around by its thong until it was a blur. She then released it, and shot through the hole in the ceiling. Seconds later, the sonic boom from above as she reached her top velocity echoed down below.   
  
Satisfied the satellite would be taken care of, Bucky turned to confront the opposition. "All right, Mandy. Here's where you get your... Hey! Where did he go?"  
  
"Elektra's gone too," Hawkeye pointed out.  
  
"I'm still here," Speed Demon said.  
  
The pair looked at the grinning man. Bucky started to tense up when Hawkeye laid a hand on her shoulder. "You go on and take care of the Mandarin. He's up to something. I can feel it. I'll join you as soon as I take care of Speed Bump again."  
  
"The name is Speed Demon!" he snapped. "And you got lucky with the grease last time since I was fighting someone else. I'll beat you bad, just like I did the first time."  
  
"What about your arm?" Bucky asked Hawkeye, pointing at the blood that now dripped all the way down the length of her firing arm.  
  
"It looks worse than it is," the archer assured her.  
  
Bucky was torn between friendship and duty, but eventually the latter won. "You better watch out for yourself."  
  
"I will." Hawkeye lamented her luck as Bucky ran off. If only it had been that hunky captain showing such concern for her instead of his busty sidekick. Now that the archer thought about it, she hoped the two weren't an item. She could tell right away that the redhead was far too loose for an upright kind of guy like Captain Japan. He needed someone who was a better match for him; a hero who could compliment his fighting prowess on the field as well as off. He needed someone like Hawkeye as a partner. She had range attacks to compliment his defensive abilities. They would be a perfect pairing. She'd have to drop a few hints to him the next time they met.   
  
Hawkeye could see it now, after a hard day of adventuring and bringing down thieves and thugs, they would return to her restaurant where she they could shed their masks. Then she would cook him the best okonomiyaki in the world, since it came from the heart...  
  
"Hey, don't forget about me. I'm still here," Speed Demon said, noting the dream-like expression his opponent had started to gain.  
  
"I only wish I could." Hawkeye grimaced as she pulled an arrow out of her quiver. The injury to her shooting arm had been worse than she let on. But somehow she knew the Mandarin was up to no good and had to be stopped. Bucky had to take him on, even if it meant Hawkeye would have to fight a man who was much closer to peak condition than her.  
  
Hawkeye brought her bow up and drew back an arrow. She was only able to pull it halfway before the pain in her shoulder became so intense spots began to dance before her eyes. She recalculated the trajectory to her target with only a half pull and released her shaft.  
  
Speed Demon easily snatched the arrow in mid-air and tossed it aside. "This is ridiculous. You can't even shoot. Let me knock you out."   
  
"No!" Hawkeye drew another arrow.  
  
Speed Demon sighed. "Fine. I'll give you three shots at me. I'll just stand here and let you shoot three times. And the one I grabbed counts. So you only have two more to go. After that, I'm knocking you out whether you like it or not."  
  
"Fine." Hawkeye gave off a high pitched cry as she was able to bring the string back even less than before. There was a light twang as the arrow was forced to arc up in order to reach its target.  
  
Again Speed Demon plucked the arrow out of mid-air. "I don't even need super speed to grab these." He tossed it aside as well.  
  
Sweat dripped down Hawkeye's cheek. If she didn't get him this time, it was all over. That would leave Bucky to fight three opponents, and even if her fighting prowess rivaled that of the Captain himself, she would still be outmatched. Hawkeye had to take this guy out no matter what.  
  
Speed Demon shook his head sadly as the archer drew a third arrow. He was amused as he watched her rub the tip, then nocked it to her bow. He yawned in contempt. He was yawning for so long he was almost caught off-guard as Hawkeye gave a cry of intense pain and drew the bow string back as far as it could go and released the shaft.  
  
But for Speed Demon, almost was not enough. Instead the speedster found his concentration in time and caught the shaft a handful of centimeters away from his chest. He laughed. "Nice try, making that last one come hard and fast, but-"  
  
There was a click from the arrowhead, and Speed Demon found himself the recipient of a heavy dosage of electricity. He fell to the ground, smoke wafting from his prone body.   
  
Hawkeye fell to her knees from the exertion. "Guess what. Shock arrows can also be set on timers, and the shafts are always metal. Oh, but I guess you found that out."  
  
Completely exhausted, Hawkeye tried moving her arm, and found the limb barely responsive. It had taken all of her remaining energy to fire the last arrow, and she thought something snapped in her arm when she did it. She hoped it was a strain rather than a tear. In any case, she was helpless. If she tried to help Bucky now, she'd be nothing but a liability. She cursed her luck.   
  
The room vibrated slightly, and Hawkeye could hear the unmistakable sound of portions of the fortress caving in. Maybe the whole problem with the Mandarin was about to take care of itself. Hawkeye picked the still unconscious Daredevil up with her good arm and managed to hoist him on her back in a half fireman's carry. "You weigh a ton," she grunted, then realized with all of the secret weapons he carried, he just might.  
  
"You're going to owe me big for this," she groaned as she tried finding an exit to the crumbling fortress.  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
"How good of you to join me," the Mandarin said as he made his way into the fortress's main control room.  
  
Elektra detached herself from the shadows she had hidden in as she followed her employer. "I do not live under the delusion I am capable of defeating either Iron Rose or Thor. Only a fool does not run from what is obviously a lost cause."  
  
The Mandarin noted the words were directed towards him. He scoffed. "While it's true I've suffered a major setback today, it is not the end. Yes, this fortress is lost, There's no question it's structural integrity is compromised, however I will take my revenge."  
  
"How?" the assassin asked, noting that the ceiling of this chamber was beginning to crack.  
  
Dust began filtering down from above as the Mandarin laughed. He adjusted the controls of the satellite. "Those fools believe the beam can only be fired when it's fully recharged. Nothing could be farther from the truth. That's only the beam's maximum setting. It can be fired at any point during the recharge process. It's just that the beam won't be as wide. And really, in the big scheme of things, what's the difference between thirty-five kilometers or," he looked at one of the gauges. "Thirty-two?"   
  
"Killing all of those people gains you nothing but the survivors' anger," Elektra said.   
  
A pebble fell from above, bouncing off the Mandarin's mane of white hair. He took no note of it. "Having second thoughts about killing people? An assassin like you?"  
  
Elektra's voice was cold. "I have never killed out of malice or some misguided form of revenge. It was always with some notable gain in mind."  
  
"So you killed for money. I'm doing it now for personal satisfaction." The Mandarin raised his fists into the air. "These heroes have ruined my lifelong ambition. It will take me years to reestablish my power base. Oh, make no mistake. I will do it. I will rule this world. But these accursed meddlers have taken away my victory, so I will make it as Pyrrhic for them as I can manage, and that means Tokyo dies. Their nation will be thrown into chaos and anarchy for years, and it will be solely because of their meddling. Everything would have been fine and there would have been peace if they hadn't stuck their noses in where they didn't belong. And now they'll pay for it!" He threw a lever. "It's done. It'll take several minutes for the canon to warm up for its premature firing, but it's over."  
  
Elektra looked at the ceiling worriedly. "We should leave now."  
  
"I'll remain here long enough to ascertain personally that Tokyo is vaporized," the Mandarin swore.  
  
"Not a chance, pal!"  
  
The Mandarin turned his delighted look from his controls up to see Bucky had entered the room. He shot her an evil stare. "You have my thanks for coming here. You have no idea the satisfaction your death brings me. I would have preferred to leave you alive long enough to witness your failure to protect your homeland, but I'm afraid I haven't the time." He raised his right hand.  
  
In response, Bucky brought up her shield to block the blast.  
  
The Mandarin laughed. It was a painful thing to hear, filled with as much suffering as it was anger. "Your shield can't protect you from disintegration! Now I will kill you as I should have done the first time I laid eyes upon you!" He unleashed the mental command to the appropriate ring.  
  
A sai was driven through the Mandarin's hand just as the beam was emitted. Instead of going through the shield and into flesh, it cut a semicircle through the stone under the Mandarin's feet, as well as several floors below. He cried out, momentarily overwhelmed by the agony.  
  
Bucky watched in stunned silence at Elektra's actions; inexplicable ones that had saved her life. Then she saw the assassin pull back the Mandarin's head and raise her second sai, obviously intending to plunge it into his throat.  
  
"No! Don't kill him!" Bucky cried out.  
  
Elektra hesitated. It was all the Mandarin needed to lash out with a blue encased fist from his good hand. The blow caught Elektra in her chest, and she flew backward.   
  
The Mandarin rose to his feet, pulling the bloody sai from his hand and tossing it aside. The look of murder in his eye was twice that of before. "Traitor! Now you'll die first!" He raised his other hand and pointed it at her.  
  
A thrown shield smashed into his wrist, causing his hand to fly upward. Flames erupted from the ring, pouring out onto the stones above. Like napalm, the alien fire clung to the rock rather than merely going out, its heat intense enough to slowly begin melting the stone.  
  
The Mandarin tried to bring his hand up, but Bucky was upon him, laying in punches and kicks, driving him back. He couldn't seem to summon a defense as Bucky continued hammering into his body. His dragon scale armor deflected most of the force of the body shots, but still they took their toll, backed by a strength no normal woman should have had. Several blows connected with his face. Blood poured from a split lip. A hard right into the jaw, and several shiny white teeth flew from the mouth and bounced off the master control panel.   
  
A particularly strong kick sent the Mandarin skidding across the stone several feet away. He tried to rise and fell back down, curling into a heap.  
  
"Finish him!" Elektra demanded.   
  
Bucky stopped her attack. The words made her realize how much damage she had inflicted, and the fact that she had no intention of stopping. But the command had shocked her out of her anger. She gave Elektra a firm look. "No way."  
  
The assassin trembled in anger. "Don't be a fool! He's a mass murderer! There isn't a person in the world who would say he deserves less than death!"  
  
Bucky shook her head, her resolve like iron. "I don't do stuff like that. If I did, you'd be dead in the river."  
  
"Roaring Dragon's Bite!" the Mandarin cried out, using Bucky's distraction to supreme advantage. A huge dragon shaped chi blast hurled itself from his body.   
  
Caught unaware, the blast completely 'swallowed' Bucky in her entirety. As the blast dissipated, she was left behind. She remained standing for a moment, her form smoldering blue from the energy that had consumed her. Then her legs began trembling violently, unable to support her weight. She fell to the knees, then collapsed facedown on the floor, unable to rise.   
  
Before he could press the advantage, the Mandarin found several shurikens thrown his way. Three deflected harmlessly off his armor. A fourth found its way into a joint at his elbow, the arm with the wounded hand. He snarled out in pain.  
  
"Die!" the Mandarin shouted, sending flames, bolts of electricity and shards of ice in Elektra's direction.   
  
Using every ounce of speed and agility she possessed, Elektra avoided the beams of death by only the slightest of margins. Several of the smaller ice shards embedded themselves in her skin, drawing only a superficial amount of blood.  
  
The Mandarin switched tactics. A sudden flash like a thousand light bulbs shone in Elektra's direction, momentarily blinding her. A bolt of electricity followed, striking home. Elektra fell to the ground, her unmoving, partially blackened form, smoldering just as Bucky's had earlier.  
  
The Mandarin aimed at the stationary target. "And now, as with all good things, it is time we came to an ending."  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Thor found herself flying faster than ever before thanks to the thrust Iron's Rose's jets adding to her own hammer-imbued flight. They had reached the upper atmosphere within minutes. Thor's godly form was able to withstand the rigors of such travel, even in deep space for a limited time. She was uncertain of how she knew this, since she had never been in space, but she did. Iron Rose had an internal air supply, and the armor was easily durable enough to withstand the hardships of space temporarily.  
  
Thor found the panoramic view from this height extraordinary. She could see so much of the land below her, and with the naked eye alone. Mountains, rivers, small clusters of buildings that were actually cities, passed below as she flew over the landscape. It was beautiful.   
  
Unfortunately, she did not have the luxury of enjoying the scenery. A far more grimmer task was ahead as she and Iron Rose raced against time. Millions of lives were on the line, including her family's. Failure was not an option.  
  
As she traveled through the atmosphere, Thor's mind raced ahead to her home in Nerima. What was her family doing now? She tried to remember what time it was there, since the journey to China and her hours spent in unconsciousness had thrown her off completely. She suspected it was around dinner time. Kasumi would be preparing the family's meal. Nabiki would be working out, studying a martial art she openly loathed. Their father was probably engaging in his new hobby of playing shogi with Mr. Saotome, or trying to hook one of the girls up with Ranma.  
  
Ranma. What was he doing? He was an unusual sort. Not at all like the jerks at school. He didn't stare at her or treat her daintily like most people did. Her affliction had not jarred him in the slightest. Actually, he was a bit rude to her at times, which people never were. But that was because they felt they had to be extra sensitive around her due to her handicap, which in many ways was as painful as if they did mock the injury. Not that she liked it when Ranma was rude, but on the other hand, he acted the same way around Nabiki when she vexed him as well. It meant he viewed her in the same terms as her non-handicapped sister, which was comforting, in a fashion.   
  
And then there was the wonderful Dr. Tofu. This was his day off, so he'd probably be tinkering with his machine again. She missed him already. And there was Yuka and Sayuri, and everyone else she knew. All of them unaware that they had been targeted for death by a would-be world conqueror, and it was up to Thor and her companions to save them from annihilation. She wondered if they get a chance to see the light coming from above and wonder what it meant, or would death come in an instant and they would never realize what had happened?  
  
No! That could not be allowed to happen. Thor could not afford to fail like she had against the Mandarin. They had to get to the satellite and destroy it. She would not see everything she loved taken from her. She would give her life itself before that would happen.  
  
And then something in the distance caught her eye. It was a flash of light that appeared somewhere in the upper atmosphere and slightly to the left.   
  
Over the comlink Iron Rose had given her, Thor asked, "What doth that portend?"  
  
Iron Rose's voice was full of fear as she said, "It's the satellite. But that's impossible! It still needs two minutes to recharge. I know it does!"  
  
"Shoot it down!"  
  
Fear became panic. "I cannot. It's out of range. Even if I were to boost the power of my repulsors it would only increase the damage they could inflict, not distance."  
  
"We have to do something!" Thor insisted, tears beginning to fill her eyes as the glow grew brighter. This wasn't the way it was supposed to be. Thor wasn't helpless like Akane Tendou was. She wasn't!  
  
"There's nothing we can do. We're... helpless."  
  
The light glowed like a small star, and a white beam began to stretch out from the bottom, like a giant lance pointing to the world below.  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
"Hey Mandy!"  
  
The Mandarin turned from Elektra. The interruption was doubly irritating since he had finally ended the mental debate of whether to fry her nervous system with electricity, turn her into a giant block of ice, or burn her to death. He had chosen burning since death would not be instantaneous and the suffering would continue longer.  
  
Since the annoying shield slinger seemed intent on delaying his fun, he decided Bucky would suffer that fate instead. He turned, aiming at the voice. The moment he saw what the hero was doing, his hand wavered.   
  
Despite being battered within an inch of her life and completely exhausted, Bucky stood next to one of the computers, shield raised over her head. "You seemed to be fooling around with this panel right before I came in. I bet it's important to you."  
  
"I command you to stop!" the Mandarin shouted.  
  
Bucky smirked. "That's all I needed to know." And brought the shield down.  
  
A raging torrent of chi fire emitted from the Mandarin's body and headed towards Bucky. But it was too late as the shield's adamantium and vibrainium edge, backed by Bucky's serum enhanced strength, smashed through the metal and shattered the controls, shredding the delicate circuitry underneath. Sparks leaped about the whole control board and the command room filled with the smell of ozone and acrid smoke.   
  
Bucky had no time to enjoy her victory as the Mandarin's chi blast struck her. She was hurled into the control panel she had destroyed, burned by some of the electricity, and bounced back away to the hard stone floor. She was left moaning on the ground, chi and electricity making breathing an ordeal.  
  
"You bitch!" the Mandarin raged. "You destroyed the controls and aborted the override on the firing sequence! You've destroyed my plans again!" He brought his hand up once more. His eyes focused on the only thing that existed in his mind. "There's no force in the universe that can save you now. I, Prince Herb of the Musk Dynasty, hereby sentence you to death."  
  
Bucky weakly pointed towards the ceiling over his head. "Look out above you."  
  
"Don't insult my intelligence!" the Mandarin shouted. "No one ever falls for that on-"  
  
The rest was drowned out by tons of fire weakened, stress torn, rock ceiling as it came crashing down on the Mandarin. The force and weight of the rock was so great it shattered the disintegrator weakened floor, dropping the entire mass out of sight.  
  
"Told you so," Bucky said before her head slumped and she remained motionless.  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxx  
  
The light died and all returned to the former blackness of space, punctuated by only the normal pinpoints of light that signified the vastness of the universe.  
  
"It didn't fire." It was almost a question from the way Iron Rose stated it. "It didn't fire." The next time was more confident and firm, said in obvious delight. "It didn't fire!"  
  
Thor felt the tension flee her body. Her family, her entire life, was safe now. She looked again upon the land below. No longer plagued by the knowledge that the fate of millions hung on her actions, she was able to enjoy the scenery. She smiled at the land as it passed by below her. It was a pity she couldn't ask the Iron Rose to take pictures (surely she had a camera function in the armor somewhere) and show her family, but there was no way she could explain how she had acquired them.   
  
"Oh my god!"   
  
Thor returned her attention to Iron Rose. "What is it?"  
  
"Look!" She pointed off in the distance.  
  
Thor followed the direction the finger indicated, and felt her heart sink into her stomach again. The light had reappeared, much brighter this time given the distance that had closed between them and their destination. "But... but it stopped. It had stopped."  
  
"Whatever it was that prevented it from firing prematurely must not have interrupted its normal firing sequence. We have to destroy it!"  
  
"Can thou smite it from the skies now?"  
  
"Yes, I think it's in range. Damn! I eased back on the jets when I thought it wasn't going to fire. We aren't as close as I thought we'd be!"  
  
"Punish thyself not overmuch. I fear I acted in like manner." The light grew brighter. "Now the world will pay for our mistake."  
  
"Yes! I can just make it." Iron Rose raised her hands for a twin repulsor blast. A moment later, she cursed. "Damn!"  
  
Thor's heart was racing. "What now?"  
  
"I can't get a lock on it. I thought by downloading its coordinates my armor could automatically shoot it, but whatever it's made of is invisible to my targeting system."  
  
"Just shoot it down by aiming."  
  
"It's not that close, and I'm not that great a shot, especially with long distances!"   
  
The brightness of the satellite doubled.  
  
"Shoot!" Thor ordered.  
  
Iron Rose did so. Twin gouts of energy emitted from the palms of her gauntlets. The beams stretched across the void of space towards the light that was their goal.   
  
They sailed far wide to the left, leaving the brightness to triple.  
  
"Again!"  
  
"I know! I know!" Iron Rose fired a second time.  
  
The blast went to the right. A white light began to stretch out from the bottom of the satellite, identical to the previous time.  
  
Iron Rose fired one last shot.  
  
Time seemed to stretch into infinity. This close, they could make out bright motes of red light circling the projection at the bottom of the satellite. It seemed like the satellite hung motionless, and the light moved independently. The world no longer moved below, the island of Japan directly beneath all three of the bodies that hung in orbit.   
  
And then time started again. The white light at the bottom flashed.  
  
Iron Rose's blast struck the base of the satellite, exactly at the source that the projection of light was emanating.  
  
Silently a wide white beam of energy lanced forth from the satellite to the planet below.  
  
"NO!" both Iron Rose and Thor shouted as one.  
  
A small explosion came from the point of impact of Iron Rose's repulsor blast. Smaller ones joined with the first, traveling up the length of the satellite and increasing in number and force. It listed to the side, like a slender ship starting to capsize in an ocean of eternal night. There was one last tremendous explosion, and it tore the satellite apart in the middle, sending torn pieces of metal, wires, and plastics in all directions. One half of it began a slow process of reentering the atmosphere, while the other seemed content to remain drifting along the path it had previously taken.  
  
Thor found her mouth dry as she released her grip on Iron Rose and arrested her own forward motion, hovering in orbit like the satellite had a moment before. It was over. She had failed. Everyone she loved was dead. Surely Ragnarok could be no less devastating than the horror she had just witnessed. Her mind all but shut down, unable to deal with what had happened. She felt like curling up in a ball and remain floating in orbit, eventually either freezing to death or burning up in reentry. It didn't matter. She couldn't live with the knowledge she had failed everyone so miserably. All her power, and she was as she always had been; as helpless as a cripple.  
  
Iron Rose began waving her arms frantically, one of them striking Thor in the chest. The blow eradicated the stupor Thor had fallen into. Anger replacing sorrow, she grabbed Iron Rose by her thick helmet, where the neck would be had it been slimmer, and threatened to crumple it as though her companion was nothing more than an aluminum can.  
  
"Tis thy fault too that we failed to stop the rain of death!"  
  
"It didn't hit the mainland!"  
  
Thor released her grip. "What did thou say?"  
  
"My armor triangulated the path of the beam. My blast must have thrown off the trajectory at the last moment. It struck the ocean instead. Not far from the coast, but it missed. Everyone's still alive!" The armored girl would have jumped for joy had she not been flying in mid-air.  
  
A wave of relief washed over Thor. Still, she feared to hope. "Art thou certain? Tis not another mistake in thine calculations?"  
  
"I'm absolutely sure. Let me tune into the local radio frequencies."  
  
Thor watched her armored compatriot cock her head quizzically, obviously listening to something only she could hear.   
  
In a handful of minutes, Iron Rose announced, "The JSDF is reporting a strange light striking fifty kilometers off shore from the mainland. They're sending out jets to investigate and rerouting commercial aircraft out of the area. We did it!"  
  
At last Thor allowed herself a moment to relax. She and the Iron Rose hugged one another in joy, hanging in space as they were.  
  
After a moment, Thor's demeanor turned serious. "We still need to mete vengeance upon he who perpetrated this travesty in the first place."  
  
With great relish in her voice, Iron Rose said, "Yes, let's tell the Mandarin how we destroyed his plans before we tear his head from his shoulders."  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Elektra walked painfully over to where the floor had caved in, being extra careful around the edge, lest she share the Mandarin's fate. The hole went deep. Obviously the disintegrator had sheared through multiple floors, weakening them enough that the mass from those above each one was sufficient to drag the Mandarin and the tons of rubble down into the abyss with him. "He is disposed of," she informed Bucky.  
  
"I warned him," Bucky said, flat on her back and too tired to move. All life was sacred, but she couldn't find it in her heart to feel bad about the Mandarin's demise. He had literally brought it upon himself.   
  
She watched as Elektra, only in marginally better shape, moved away from the edge of the hole. Her weapons had been lost at some point during the battle. The kerchief she usually wore on her head was missing as well, allowing a tangled mass of black hair to fall freely past her shoulders and down her back. Her outfit was torn in several revealing spots. Not as revealing as Bucky's, but almost as bad. Especially the top, which had lost its straps and was fighting a losing battle with hiding the impressive bust that was holding it up.  
  
"Why'd you turn on him?" Bucky asked.  
  
The assassin shrugged. "Motives mean nothing. It is done. My fate is sealed. I feel no remorse for my actions, nor would I have acted differently."  
  
Bucky gave a smug look. "It was me, wasn't it? All my talking about doing the right thing and being responsible for the safety of others made you turn from a bad guy to good, right?"  
  
Elektra shot her an icy glare. "I said I do not regret my actions. Do not make me start now."  
  
"Right, right." Bucky placed a hand behind her head and laughed nervously.   
  
The destruction started by the latest ceiling collapse began to stretch throughout the rest of the command center. Increasingly large piece of masonry fell in a rain of rock and dust.  
  
Bucky tried rising to her feet, but the punishment her body had taken was too much, and she fell to the ground halfway through the attempt. "We need to get out of here."  
  
Elektra remained where she was, watching the hero's futile attempt to rise.   
  
Shooting her an irritated glare, Bucky said, "Are you going stand there or are you going to help me up? This place ain't going to last much longer."  
  
In answer, Elektra moved away to a section where more rocks were starting to fall heavily.   
  
"What are you doing? We have to get out," Bucky insisted.  
  
Elektra gave him a sad look, "Tell me something, Captain. I am still an assassin with many deaths that I am directly responsible for. Would you send me to prison?"  
  
Bucky shifted uncomfortably. "Um, well, yeah. You sort of have to go for all you did. But I'll tell them you helped beat the Mandarin. Not that I couldn't have taken him on my own, of course. Just that you helped speed things up. I'm sure you'll get a reduced sentence or something." She shrugged helplessly.  
  
Elektra moved back further. "I have no desire to spend the rest of my days behind bars, not that my master would allow me to live for long after this betrayal. The Hand can reach anywhere. No, Captain. I have burned all my bridges and, for some curious reason, am happier for it. But I do not live under the illusion that there are not lethal repercussions from it. I will not waste my time, nor insult you, by suggesting you travel with me. A pity. I think we would have had an enjoyable life together."  
  
Finally, Bucky managed to rise to her feet. "Get over here where it ain't collapsing as much and we can talk about it. Maybe we can work something out."  
  
Elektra laughed and gave the girl a grin. "I somehow doubt you would compromise your integrity for someone with so much blood on her hands, and I would settle for nothing less than having you for my own. I fear this is the end, Captain." She smiled and took another step back.  
  
Bucky saw the remaining portion of the roof above Elektra begin to fall. "Look out above you!"  
  
The amused grin remained. "No one ever falls for that one, Captain. Bie Liao."  
  
And the rocks hit, making Elektra disappear within the hail of stone. Bucky lunged forward, heedless of the risk, shouting out Elektra's name.  
  
And then the floor lurched, then gave out beneath her. Bucky tried to leap back, but tripped over the uneven surface and fell, striking her head hard against a rock.   
  
Bucky tried fighting off the darkness, but the ordeal of all the fighting from the last day and half proved too much. Just as she blacked out, she thought she saw a figure looming over her.   
  
And then there was nothing.  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Giant Man had just completed dressing Daredevil's wound when the death throes of the fortress reached her ears. He looked on in horror as the roof gave out. With the top gone, the structure caved in on itself, like a house of cards constructed of stone rather than paper.  
  
Wasp looked on at the destruction. "Oh dear. You don't suppose Bucky was caught in that, do you?"  
  
Hawkeye said, "I don't see her. I need to go in and find out."  
  
"Don't," Giant Man rose to a height of eight meters and placed a restraining hand in front of her. "It's still unstable, and you only have one good arm. We'd probably just lose you too."  
  
"She stayed behind to take care of the Mandarin. We can't just leave her to her fate. We have to do something!" Hawkeye protested.   
  
Daredevil fingered his wound gingerly. "If someone could carry me close enough, I might be able to hear her crying for help. Assuming she's still in good enough shape to call out. Besides, I want to find Elektra. She still has answers I need to hear."  
  
Giant Man rubbed his chin in thought. "I can probably grow large enough to move around the debris without worrying about it burying me."  
  
It was at that moment that the air quaked, announcing the return of the satellite destroyers: Thor and Iron Rose. All talk waited until the pair landed next to the group of heroes. Thor did a quick headcount. "Where is the harlot? And who art these two?" she said, looking at Wasp and Giant Man.  
  
The duo introduced themselves. Thor looked them over. The small flying girl was of no concern, she was the height of an insect, so what could she really do? The man was a bit on the slender side and seemed passive. Compared to the physically appealing Captain Japan or the archer with the tight buns (and that was to say nothing of his ability to kiss), he quickly was ranked a distant third, and maybe even fourth on the desirability chart, depending on whether Daredevil acted like his usual reclusive self or not.  
  
"Do you have anything that can find people underground?" Hawkeye asked Iron Rose.  
  
"Not really. This armor is suited more for combat than surveillance and rescue operations. I could try something though."  
  
"I knew I shouldn't have let her take the Mandarin and that backstabbing bitch alone!" Hawkeye lamented. "I have to go find her now."  
  
Thor restrained the archer with a firm hand. "Losing you would only make matters worse," the goddess assured her. "We will let Giant Man and Daredevil try their hand first."  
  
Giant Man shot up to a height of fourteen meters, and was about to pick up Daredevil, when a tremendous explosion came from the remains of the fortress. All panicked at the idea of further destruction and the ever decreasing chance of finding Bucky alive, when the cause of the destruction finished its leap and landed amongst them.  
  
"Stupid Not-So-Little-Man tried to bury Hulk! Hulk is not a bone! Hulk hates being buried! Where is Not-So-Little-Man, so Hulk can smash!"  
  
"Bucky!" Everyone called out as one.  
  
The Hulk looked down at the burden cradled in his arms. "Oh yes. Hulk found Shield Girl under some rocks. Hulk got her out before she was buried as deep as Hulk was. Hulk bets she hates being buried as much as he does."  
  
"Geez, being saved by this big galoot is so embarrassing," Bucky said, crawling out of his grasp and onto the ground. She quickly found herself encircled by the others.   
  
They made quite the collection of people. Most of them looked like they had been shoved through a blender filled with broken glass with all the injuries they had sustained, then tossed into a deep pit with all the dirt and grime they were covered in. But they were all alive and with no permanent injuries.  
  
Once things calmed down enough for the others to listen, Bucky informed them what happened in the Mandarin's chamber. Thor seemed disappointed she would not get a chance to avenge herself. Daredevil seemed despondent over the assassin's death.   
  
Iron Rose said, "It would be best to contact the authorities and tell them what transpired here. With the Mandarin's threat ended, the world can sleep well tonight."  
  
The others started congratulating another on a job well done when Bucky cleared her throat loudly. All eyes turned to her.  
  
"I've been giving this some thought. I'll admit, I wasn't too enthusiastic about becoming a super-hero in the beginning, but with what happened here today, and with how close the world came to being conquered, well, I can't deny it any more. The world needs people like us to help defend it from people like the Mandarin."  
  
The others nodded in agreement, even the Hulk.  
  
"Now if we had worked as a team from the beginning, instead of a bunch of individuals, we would have kicked the Mandarin's butt before he got his satellite off the ground and killed all those poor people in Mexico. I mean, I know he was responsible for it, but we still have to accept some of the blame since we didn't stop him in time."  
  
The others ashamedly agreed. They dealt with the loss in different ways, from giving a moment of silence for those lost to praying for their souls, or even shedding a tear for the fallen.  
  
Bucky waited a moment to deal with some of the guilt that had settled in. "Anyway, we can't do anything for them, but we can do something to prevent it from happening again."  
  
"How?" Wasp asked.  
  
"All of us here agree to form a super hero team. We get some organization, and stuff like that and, you know, work together to fight off menaces as they appear. None of us could have handled this alone, so it only make sense we be a team."  
  
Wasp flitted about enthusiastically. "Oh my, that sounds good. I want to be a real super hero. Count me in." Her family was just going to have to get by cooking and cleaning on their own from time to time.  
  
Reluctantly, Giant Man said, "Well, if my partner's in, so am I." He sighed, hoping his practice didn't suffer too much from all the superheroing he would be doing on the side.  
  
Thor gave a broad smile. "It would be good to fight with comrades at mine side again." It would be like the good old days when she dashed into adventure with the Warriors Three. Many menaces they would fight. And after they emerged triumphant, they would celebrate hard with copious amounts of wine and wenching. "Wenching?"  
  
"What did you wrench?" Bucky asked.  
  
"Nothing, nothing!" Thor said hastily. "I wish to be part of thine group."  
  
"Heck, I've been looking for someone to partner up with," Hawkeye said. The lonely days of patrolling alone were over. And who knew, maybe she'd even get close enough to one of the guys to reveal her true gender and finally go out on a date.  
  
The Hulk asked, "Are you Hulk's friends?"   
  
Bucky slapped him on the back. "I guess we are, big guy."  
  
"Hulk does not have many friends. Hulk will join."  
  
Iron Rose said, "Not only shall I join, but I can guarantee my employer will be more than happy to finance the team, as well as providing a base of operations and a modest stipend as a form of recompense for your time and trouble." And she was going to make it all one massive charitable contribution and write it off her taxes.   
  
Daredevil was the last to agree. "I'm used to working alone. Actually, I'm used to always being alone. But recently someone told me that I might have become a bit too solitary. I'm willing to give it a shot." But if things didn't go the way he hoped, he would be the first to head out too. He didn't care much for his companions, but he supposed there was the possibility they would grow on him.  
  
"What about Captain Japan?" Hawkeye asked, trying not to sound too eager about it.  
  
"I guarantee he'll join," Bucky assured her. "I speak for him all the time and he does the same for me. Only, ah, we split time on the superhero thing, so I doubt if we'll be there at the same time. But one or the other of us will show up."  
  
"I was under the impression this was a full time commitment," Iron Rose said.  
  
"One of us will be there. Two halves will be like one whole person there."  
  
"Why on earth do you split time being heroes?" Wasp asked.  
  
"Well... you see... it's sort of like," Bucky started to panic then the answer came to her. "We only got the one shield. So we split time with it. And we both feel naked without it, so we only go out one at a time."  
  
"Thou doth have a tendency to go about naked even with it," Thor said with a touch of irritation in her voice.  
  
"And what's going to be our name?" Wasp asked.  
  
"Yeah, we need a good name," Hawkeye agreed.   
  
The others considered the question. Almost by some unspoken consensus, all eyes turned to Bucky.  
  
Realizing she was the center of attention, she was about to snap out why she had to come up with the name, when it came to her. "Since we stopped the Mandarin and avenged all those people in Mexico he killed, I say we call ourselves the Avengers."  
  
Everyone agreed solemnly with that.   
  
And thus, it was on a lonely mountaintop in Western China that the superhero group known as the Avengers was born.  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
And somewhere in time, the man more commonly known as Kang the Conqueror, raged against all the heavens and everything under them as well. But in that timeless void, his anger passed, and control was regained. After all, the moment of truth had not yet come. Preventing the Avengers' formation was merely the first chance he could take to prevent the event from coming to pass. It was still some distance off. The event could still be averted and he could make everything right once again.  
  
After all, as the unequivocal Master of Time, he still had time.   
  
Time to kill them all.  
  
xxxxx  
  
And here ends the first story arc to Avenging. Worked out just as I hoped. Got to the resolution the way I wanted. Left lots of threads to pick up for the second arc. Had the right mix of seriousness and humor I wanted. Anyone want to see more? Still have lots of fun in mind, including the Hulkbusters, the Enchantress and Executioner, the Steel Lilly, and Happosai getting his hands on some gazongas. Do let me know if it sounds interesting to you.  
  
Special thanks to  
Chris Horton  
Gary Ee  
William Morse 


	12. Act II Chapter 1: Revenge of the Killer

Avenging  
  
Act II  
  
Chapter 1  
  
Revenge of the Killer Hornet  
  
Any and all CC is appreciated. You can contact me at  
  
sommer3rdm.net  
  
All of my fics are stored at the following:  
  
Larry F's new address also Angcobra is now storing fics, at   
  
http:go.to/AngCobra  
  
At RC books at:  
  
http:www.fanworks.org  
  
Standard Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Ranma 1/2, Marvel, or anime characters. They belong to their respective creators.  
  
[Forward: This one eases us back into the Avenging universe by focusing on the Wasp, and moving subplots forward, as well as introducing more foes for our heroes, and meeting a few old ones as well.]  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
"...And so I said to her, 'Just bring your friend along to the hotel, and we'll make it a threesome.' And you know what she did?"  
  
"No. What?"  
  
"She kneed me in the groin."  
  
"The frigid bitch."  
  
"That's enough out of you two!" Lieutenant Kaori Makimura shouted, slamming her fists on the top of her desk in rage.  
  
Twin brothers Ryo and Kyo Saeba stared at her in surprise. Kyo then whispered conspiratorially to his brother, "Sounds like it's that time of the month for a certain you-know-who."  
  
"That's not why I'm yelling at you, you misogynist pigs! It's your sexist attitudes that are driving me crazy and preventing me from finishing my reports!"  
  
Ryo whispered, "Looks like you-know-who's not getting any."  
  
"Out! Out now!" Kaori began throwing everything on her desk at them, including the laptop she had been using to write her report. The brothers abandoned her office before she actually connected with any of the objects hurled at them.  
  
Eyes rimmed red in anger marked the pair's progress out of the office and toward the relative safety of the front of the station. Kaori briefly considered pursuing the brothers and making them pay for their comments, but regained enough control to stop herself. It was times like this she hated the fact she couldn't just shoot them out of hand. As much as she despised superpowered beings, maybe having the ability to geld idiots wouldn't be so bad.  
  
Instead, revenge could take the form of assigning them to undercover work in 'The Blue Oyster' bar, a known pick-up place for homosexual men. The suave pair wouldn't have to complain about a lack of romantic attention there. It would serve them right for their endless harassment and being the bane of her existence.  
  
She was still fantasizing about the duo squirming in discomfort as they were felt up in the bar when the men in question ran into her office, looking more terrified than when they left. They crouched behind Kaori's desk, guns drawn as they peered warily over the edge of the desktop.  
  
Kaori grabbed her shoulder holster and ducked behind a chair. "What is it? What's going on?"  
  
Ryo's wary eyes were focused on the door. "We're under assault."  
  
Kaori drew her revolver. "What is it? A lunatic with a gun? An angry mob? Some SPB trying to take us out?"  
  
"Worse," Kyo said. "A gang of lawyers."  
  
Kaori shuddered. For once, she was inclined to agree with the Libidinous Duo.  
  
Xxxxxxxxxx  
  
The sergeant at the front desk of the station would have seconded his superior's opinion had he known her thoughts. As it was, he found himself left alone, abandoned as the rest of his comrades suddenly decided to raid the nearest empty building in search of contraband.   
  
Preparing himself for the most dangerous encounter of his life, the sergeant regarded the dozen men standing before him. They appeared identical in every way in height, weight, and oily, slicked-back hair. They could have been clones. The black business suits they wore cost more than he made in a year. The way they stared unblinkingly at him reminded him of the way his pet snake would gaze at the mice that were put in the cage with him during feeding time. He gulped nervously.   
  
"And what are you..." the sergeant couldn't force himself to refer to them as gentleman, or in any sort of term applying to humans, for that matter. "Here for?"  
  
The man at the forefront pulled out a business card and flashed it at the sergeant. In bright gold lettering it stated that they were representatives of the legal firm Multi-Headed Serpent Unlimited.   
  
"You're from Hydra!" the sergeant gasped.  
  
"You just earned yourself a slander lawsuit, Mister," one of the men toward the rear of the pack stated in eager tones.  
  
"We represent a legitimate business interest," a second said.  
  
"That specializes in the importation of Peruvian goat's milk and the clear things that are fitted on the ends of shoelaces," a third finished.  
  
"And we do pro-bono legal cases from time to time, as in this instance," the man who had shown the business card said as he returned it to his jacket pocket. "We demand the release of two innocent victims who have been illegally detained by you jack-booted thugs: Hiroshi Karigari and Kyosuke Kasuga."  
  
It took a moment for the sergeant to recall the names. "You mean Mentallo and the Fixer?"   
  
"That's another slander suit!" the man in the back said.  
  
"Our clients have not now nor ever gone by those names, and that you would dehumanize them in such a manner indicates that you are administering to them cruel and unusual punishment, another reason for them to be released immediately."  
  
"That's what they were calling themselves right after we arrested them," the sergeant pointed out.  
  
"They were confused from concussions they sustained after having been assaulted by two criminals whom you never bothered to interrogate, let alone arrest, for their felonious acts. You can be assured our clients will be suing for that as well. Now release them," the head speaker demanded.   
  
The sergeant shook his head. "No way. They were caught tampering with the minds of every resident in the neighborhood, and under section eight, article four of the recent addendum to felony code, that constitutes an invasion of privacy. They also racked up destruction of property counts and illegal weapons charges. They aren't going anywhere."  
  
The lead man said, "You have no proof they tampered with anyone's minds. No one remembered anything."  
  
"We had a licensed telepath conduct tests that discovered the mental connection between Mentallo and his erasure of their memories using a brain boost device found at the scene of the crime."  
  
"Which means you have no physical proof, and only this mystery telepath's word to go on, which is hearsay," the man pointed out.   
  
"And no witnesses to the destruction of the property in question since no one could remember a thing," a second said.  
  
"And they had no illegal weapons. All of the equipment was destroyed, so you have no proof they were anything other than what our clients claimed: environmentally sound geothermal sensor arrays. You see, our clients were merely conducting an investigation into a safe and clean energy source when they were assaulted by those self-proclaimed superheroes, Giant Man and the Wasp. Those two vigilantes are the ones that did all that you claim, yet you never bothered to investigate them. You have no case, drop the charges immediately and we'll go easy on you."  
  
"Only one slander suit instead of two," one of the lawyers said.   
  
"No!" the sergeant insisted.   
  
Another shouted out, "Also you need to cease and desist with the violations of Mr. Kasuga's rights and remove the torture device hooked up to him."  
  
"That's a psionic inhibitor. It's the only thing that prevents him from dominating the minds of everyone in the station!"  
  
"He can't even think straight and is unable to defend himself from the charges that have been brought against him. We demand you remove it or we'll bring in Amnesty International to help out. You'll be looking at international publicity regarding your cruel and inhumane treatment of our clients. Release them now before it's too late."  
  
"Never!"  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Zakk  
  
"Ow!" Mentallo cried out as he tried moving the metal band affixed to his forehead.  
  
In the cell across from him, the Fixer said, "Why do you keep trying to take that off? You know it shocks you when you do."  
  
"I have an itch and it's right under the band, and I can't scratch it. Ow!" Mentallo shouted as he was shocked again.  
  
"Definitely cruel and unusual punishment," the Fixer grumbled. He was still pouting when a guard passed by. "Hey!" he shouted, waving his hands in order to get the man's attention.  
  
The guard stared at him through droopy eyes. "Leave me alone. This is the end of my second shift and I'm too tired to deal with your crap. I only got to watch you guys two more days before you get transferred to that special facility with the cells designed to specifically hold the two of you."  
  
The Fixer pressed on. "Since this makes it a last request kind of thing, do you think I could have a couple of Tic-Tacs and some duct tape?"  
  
The guard pulled out a list from his shirt pocket and read it over. "Nope, it says that with those things, combined with the toilet lid and your bedding, you could make a bomb big enough to pop out the bars on the window."   
  
The Fixer sighed as the guard walked away. That was exactly what he had planned to do with the items in question. The police had that American genius, Reed Richards, develop a list of items to keep out of high-tech masterminds' hands for fear of them creating dangerous items from mundane objects to facilitate said masterminds' escape. The Fixer was forced to admit, the man really was brilliant. There were items on the list whose combinations the Fixer couldn't begin to fathom.  
  
Suddenly the wall of the Fixer's cell that faced the outside exploded, pelting him with small pebbles and covering him in a cloud of dust. He hacked and coughed as he wondered what had happened. Had Hydra come to break him out, or finish him off? They didn't respond well to failures, tending to kill personnel that were deemed "too stupid to be of use." The more spectacular the failure, the more spectacular the death. But Hydra was short on super agents, so he and Kyosuke might have some further use for the organization, besides target practice.   
  
The cloud settled, revealing an attractive girl in her late teens with pink hair. She wore a sedate white blouse and blue skirt that traveled most of the way down her legs. She held a picnic basket carried in the crook of her arm, and stood amongst the rubble as if it was the most natural thing in the world.  
  
"Marie!" the Fixer gasped out, coughing slightly on the remaining dust.  
  
The instant Marie's eyes fell upon the Fixer, she smiled. "Hello, Big Brother. I was worried about you. I heard a special on television that food in prison was substandard, so I brought you lunch." She held up the picnic basket.   
  
The Fixer brushed some of the dust from his prison uniform. "Yes, well, I think I'll use this opportunity to break out instead. We can eat on the way."  
  
"Okay," Marie said amicably.  
  
"What about me?" Mentallo wailed from his cell across the way.  
  
"Oops, sorry." The Fixer turned to Marie. "Break him out, too."  
  
"I can't do that," she said.  
  
"Why?"  
  
"He's a criminal," Marie said as though even a child would understand.  
  
"He was unjustly accused, just like me."  
  
"Oh, that's okay then." Marie walked forward, casually ripped the door off the Fixer's cell, then walked across the hall and did the same to Mentallo's. She helped him to his feet and escorted him out.  
  
Alarms wailed through the jail as she led the pair of released supervillains down an alley and to a waiting car. A small flag bearing the proclamation 'Itsa Great Pizza' hung from the antenna.   
  
"What's that doing on my car?" the Fixer asked.  
  
"I've got a part time job to help," Marie said. "I also have to make a couple of stops before we return home. I sort of came by in the middle of my deliveries to drop off your food." She opened the passenger door and ushered the Fixer inside. She opened the rear door for Mentallo, then ran around the car and jumped in. As she sped off, she chatted incessantly with the Fixer and informed him of what had happened during his absence.   
  
Mentallo interrupted their conversation. "Excuse me, did you say Hiroshi is your big brother?"  
  
"Yes," Marie said.  
  
"Actually, she's the robot I told you about," the Fixer clarified.  
  
"The one that leaks radiation?" Mentallo moved as far away as he could from the robot, which mostly entailed rolling down the window and leaning out as far as he could without falling out.  
  
The Fixer said, "I got a cash advance from Hydra and fixed her shielding right before we were summoned by the boss. She's fine now. I think."  
  
"You think?" Mentallo began looking around for any stray pieces of lead that could be used to protect him.  
  
Marie said, "I'm all right. May's been taking readings on me, as well as helping me with regular maintenance. My radiation levels are well within acceptable human tolerance. Also, none of the new neighbors have been vomiting and losing their hair in the past few weeks, like the old ones did. I'd say the readings are accurate."  
  
"Who's May?" Mentallo asked.  
  
"My maid. You'll meet her when we get to my place," the Fixer explained. "We'll get that psionic inhibitor off you and tap into headquarter's computers to make sure we're not on their 'to kill' list. Once we know they won't shoot us on sight, we'll report back in and get our next assignment."  
  
"Good." Mentallo began to scratch at his scalp, then gave a shout as he shocked himself again.  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Three stops later (including one for gas) the getaway was complete, and the trio returned to the Fixer's 'headquarters': the modest home that Hiroshi had inherited from his deceased parents. It was terribly mundane, a direct contrast to the three unique individuals entering the domicile.  
  
Leading the way, Marie opened the door and entered with the Fixer hot on her heels. Mentallo followed close behind.   
  
The telepath/telekinetic paused in the entryway, noting that the furnishings were sedate, although with an unquestionably feminine touch. Curiously, there was a six-inch doll standing on the floor near the entrance to the living room. She had brown hair and wore a pink maid's outfit.  
  
"Someone left their Barbie lying around." Mentallo hoped it was Marie's and not the Fixer's. Thinking of a super villain who played with dolls, and whose powers weren't related to either Voodoo or radioactive clay, was far too unsettling.  
  
The doll suddenly spoke in a high-pitched girlish voice. "I'm not a Barbie, silly. My name is HMM-01, prototype model, but you can call me May. The HMM designation means 'Hand Maid May.' Get it? It's a play on words. Master Hiroshi made me by hand, and I'm a maid the size of a hand. Master Hiroshi has a wonderful sense of humor."  
  
"She's the maid I was talking about," the Fixer elaborated. "I made her out of spare parts I had left over after building Marie. She cleans the place up for me"  
  
"Must take a while at her size," Mentallo commented.   
  
"It does, but I do my best!" May declared, pumping her fist in determination.   
  
"I don't have any complaints," the Fixer said.  
  
An errant thought occurred to Mentallo. "She doesn't have a nuclear reactor like Marie, right?" He began backing away nervously.  
  
"Don't be silly. She's much too small to have a reactor," the Fixer scoffed. "She runs either on batteries or a plug. Why do you think there's a cord sticking out of her bottom?"  
  
Once Mentallo looked closer, he spotted a power cord that led from under May's skirt to a nearby socket. "That's sort of disturbing in an anal fixation sort of way."  
  
The Fixer became defensive. "There was no other place to put it. She is only six inches tall."  
  
"Good point." Just so long as he didn't become aroused when he plugged her in. Mentallo hadn't quite figured his partner out. He was a nerdy, lonely guy that built attractive, female robots for companionship. Odds dictated he should be fixated on at least one of them as a romantic interest, but he really did seem to view Marie as a little sister. Maybe the maid really was nothing more than a maid, though her dimensions were very Barbie-like; she even jiggled when she walked. Little details like that muddied the waters a bit. Of course, that might not be a bad thing. Maybe he could ask the Fixer could build him a Modoka-bot. A straight one, though. That had potential.  
  
"Master Hiroshi will make me a bigger body someday," May gushed, breaking Mentallo out of his fantasy.  
  
The Fixer held up a warning finger. "Now, now, May. That's not going to be for a long while. I only recently completed Marie's shielding, and if you want to be upgraded into a robot her size, you're going to need everything Marie has, and that'll take money. Just give it time."  
  
"I will, Master Hiroshi." May sighed and blushed in Hiroshi's direction, though if he noticed, he gave no sign of it.   
  
Mentallo picked up on it, though. Good, the robot was definitely not a lesbian. That would have been too much for him to take. Bad enough there were such deviants that were flesh and blood, but if there were mechanical ones as well, he'd snap like a dry twig.  
  
The Fixer waved for Mentallo to follow him. "I'm going to hack into Hydra's mainframe and make sure we're not on their 'To Kill' list." A lot of people were on it. Nick Fury, head of SHIELD. Modok, head of their rivals at AIM. The Chinese crimelord, Mantis. Someone named 'Bill'. Baron Von Strucker, the former leader of Hydra who had been ousted by the current Supreme Hydra, but had narrowly avoided assassination. Orlando Bloom just on general principle, and a host of others. Hopefully a certain resident genius and psionic user hadn't been added to the update.  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Even after the two departed, Marie and May continued smiling in their direction.   
  
"It's so nice to have Big Brother back," Marie said.   
  
"Yes, it is. I missed Master Hiroshi so much, it almost hurt," May said mournfully.   
  
Marie noticed her companion's melancholy state. "What's wrong?"  
  
It appeared May would remain silent, but after a moment's consideration, she spoke. "I'm worried about Master Hiroshi. What if that awful Wasp person comes back and throws him in jail again?"  
  
That startled Marie. "I hadn't thought of that. I just assumed once Big Brother returned to us, things would go back to normal."  
  
"I think the Wasp might take him away, though. I saw her on television. She's one of the members of that superhero group, the Avengers. She seems like an obsessive person. She might attack him for no reason again."  
  
Marie chewed on her thumb, a nervous habit she had picked up recently. "But how can we keep her from coming after him?"  
  
May considered that. After several minutes of contemplation, she snapped her fingers. "I know what I can do. I'll seek her out first and kill her. That way she'll never take Master Hiroshi away again."  
  
"Are you sure you want to kill her, though?" Marie asked hesitantly.   
  
May nodded. "It's the only way to protect Master Hiroshi. After all, he created me. I'd do anything for him."  
  
It wasn't much of an argument, but was enough to convince Marie. "How are you going to do it?"  
  
May scratched her head. Killing a superhero wasn't the same thing as cleaning a room. It involved a lot less dusting, for one thing. "Well, she's my size, so that's not a problem. I have weapons that Master Hiroshi designed to protect me from bad people and pest control. I have my jet belt to fly around with, the one that helps me clean those hard to get spots, so I can deal with her on her terrain. I suppose since she's a superhero, I'll become her arch-nemesis and confront her."  
  
"That makes sense," Marie agreed.   
  
"I'll need to draw her out and to fight me one-on-one, that way it'll be an even fight." Now May's creative juices started to flow. "I'll need to threaten something publicly in order to lure her into my clutches. I think I know just the thing. There's this old Earth Shaker prototype Master Hiroshi made, but never used for some odd reason. That would be the perfect thing to use to call her out."  
  
Now Marie started to get into it. "Okay, you'll need a costume since you're a superhero's arch-nemesis. I'm thinking of something orange and yellow. Probably an insect motif, since you will be fighting someone called the Wasp. And you'll need a name. 'The Hornet' should do it. It's not too pretentious, and since you're rivals, it makes you sound evenly matched."  
  
"Oh, good idea. You always were a lot more creative than me." May quivered in excitement. "I can't wait to confront this awful Wasp person and see to it she doesn't bother Master Hiroshi again."  
  
"Do you think we should tell Big Brother about our plan?"   
  
May shook her head. "I'd rather leave it as a surprise. His birthday is coming up soon. It'll be like an early present for him."  
  
Marie seconded the notion. "Big Brother likes surprises."  
  
"All right!" May shouted "I'm going to do my best to kill the Wasp, just like I would any other household pest!" She pumped her tiny fist enthusiastically once again.  
  
xxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Marie smiled at how easy it was to initiate the plan. The costume had been easy to make, and May had picked the destination for the battleground herself. Infiltrating the television station and finding the floor where the evening news was taking place had been easy. Marie had driven up to the studio in her pizza delivery outfit and entered with a pizza box, telling the security guard at the front desk that she had a delivery for anchorman Toji Yamamoto. The guard looked her over, said, "A hot pizza and hot delivery girl, just the way he likes them," and admitted her. Rather than going to the anchorman's office, Marie opted to get off on the floor above and find an empty room, waiting until the news was about to begin.  
  
Satisfied no one would be intruding, Marie opened the pizza box. Inside was the Earth Shaker device (which luckily was round, like a pizza) and May, or more appropriately, the Hornet.  
  
Marie admired her handiwork. She had sewn the costume for her best friend. It covered May's body completely, hugging her frame like spandex. It was mostly a dull orange, except around the hands, boots, midsection, and mask, where it was brown. Two antennae sprang forth from the outfit's headpiece, and two faux insect wings projected from the back. A belt around her waist had a holster and several round objects dangling from it.  
  
"How do I look?" May asked.  
  
"Perfect." And Marie meant it. May was going to make a good impression on her first outing as an arch-nemesis, even if she was going to retire after her only mission.  
  
May began dragging the overly large Earth Shaker device toward the studio.   
  
"Are you sure you'll be okay?" Marie asked worriedly.  
  
May nodded. "You just wait outside with the getaway car. It's not like I can fly all the way back home, especially after fighting the Wasp."  
  
"All right." Marie wished her luck one more time before leaving.  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Anchorman Toji Yamamoto irritably cleared his throat as he waited for the light to turn on, signaling him to start his part of the report. Today was a bad day, made worse by the promotion of Akemi Shutaro as his new co-anchor. Ever since she had scooped the rest of the news industry with the infamous 'Avengers' battle in downtown Tokyo, she had risen through the station's ranks like a rocket. Only yesterday she had wrested away the co-anchor's spot from its previous occupant: Megumi Yasuda. It was a terrible situation Toji found himself in. Megumi had been perfect. Older, quieter, and knew her proper station; that of co-anchor and made no attempts to take his job. He had even slept with her when she was younger.   
  
Akemi was different. Young, energetic, and hungry for his cushy position, which earned him lots of cash for no real work. She wouldn't even sleep with him, the bitch. She was probably a lesbian or something.  
  
Having no desire to fend off Akemi nipping at his heels for the rest of his career, Toji decided it was time remove the girl from the picture. Defaming the young upstart would be the easiest way. He knew a stripper that looked like just like her. A few thousand yen in the stripper's account, a few grainy shots of her in the nude, and having someone put the pictures up on the Internet would do the trick. As the old saying went, it didn't have to actually be her in the picture: it just had to look like her. Even if Akemi was cleared, her name would be dirtied so badly she wouldn't be allowed to report on the results of a fishing show.  
  
The red light on the camera came on, snapping Toji out of his daydream. He smiled suavely and began reading the information as it scrolled down the TelePrompTer. "There's been further talk recently of the problems plaguing SHIELD. The latest situation arose when it was discovered that SHIELD forces had ended up fighting against each other in the war torn nation of Slorenia. Apparently one branch based in Slorenia had been given orders to help bring the breakaway portion of the country back into the fold, while the other had been charged with defending it.   
  
"This situation has once again sparked debate among the UN about dissolving SHIELD, calling it an expensive, ineffective agency that has outlived its usefulness with the end of the Cold War. Colonel Nicholas Fury, the current head of SHIELD, refuted such contentions, claiming it had only started encountering such problems when it was placed under direct UN supervision."  
  
Toji waited patiently until the taped footage of the Colonel at a press conference began to roll.  
  
The face of an irate Nick Fury, white hair at his temples, trademark black eyepatch, and lit cigar being chomped on, appeared on the screen. "They slashed our budget in half, literally wrote over a thousand pages of restrictions on what we can do to infiltrate terrorist organizations, and removed any autonomy we had to actually do something. We can't do anything without a two thirds resolution, which takes months to do, and then they complain about how we ain't doing nothing! Putting us under UN control was the exact opposite of what our original mandate was in making us apolitical so we can stop anyone, anywhere, from screwing up the world!"  
  
The Colonel's face disappeared. Toji read from the TelePrompTer, "These comments were refuted by the majority of the UN, including one of the most outspoken members, the U.S. Ambassador.  
  
The image of a handsome man in his thirties appeared on the screen. "I'm not surprised by the Colonel's remarks. Fury is quite typical of the gung-ho hawks of the past that, quite frankly, have no place in the world today. He's a warmonger that enjoyed breaking the rules and behaving like someone out of a deranged Rambo movie. SHIELD was out of control, acting like it was above the law, and doing whatever it pleased wherever it wanted. Now that limits have been put on Fury's behavior, he's chafing at them. He abused his power repeatedly, and is now complaining about how we at the UN have reigned him in. The days of the John Wayne cowboy mentality are over. It's time to move as nations demand, and not at the whims of the individual.  
  
"I'm afraid Fury's era is in the past, and it's time for him to go. He's held his position as Director since the founding of SHIELD over fifty years ago. The only reason he's managed that feat was by halting his aging, thanks to that so-called Infinity Formula that only works on him. If nothing else, that is a clear example of one of his many abuses of power, dumping untold millions into a project designed to prolong only his life. Yes, officially it was supposed to work on anyone, and that the professor that created it was killed before he could adjust the serum to work on anyone else, but I find that tale too preposterous to have any credibility. Frankly, it sounds like a cover-up, and I wouldn't be surprised to find some of Fury's rabble-rousing cohorts in certain military manufacturing industries backing him. I'd say it's long past time for an inquiry into Director Fury's actions over the years and hold him accountable for the dirty business he's been conducting."  
  
The image of the man disappeared. Toji smirked. Maybe Akemi had gotten the lead story, but Toji's was longer.   
  
"And in further... news..." Toji stopped as a small girl in an insect costume, no more than six-inches in height, crawled up to the top of the newsdesk. Curiously, she was dragging a large metal thing, about the size of a pizza, behind her.   
  
Toji looked at the people on the set. "Am I on Candid Camera?"   
  
The tiny girl let go of the metal item, letting it lay flat right in front of Toji. She turned to the camera and bowed. In a perky voice, she said, "Pardon the interruption, but I have an announcement to make. I am the Hornet, arch-nemesis of that awful person known as the Wasp. I have come here today to issue a challenge to her."  
  
Inspiration suddenly hit Toji. This was the perfect opportunity to one-up that bitch beside him. He was going to defeat a supervillain. It didn't matter if she was the size of his daughter's doll. A few blow ups of the girl posted on television would make her appear ten feet tall instead of a half foot.  
  
Toji stood up and boldly proclaimed, "As anchorman here at Channel 6 News, I cannot allow you to commandeer the airwaves for your nefarious purposes. I, Toji Yamamoto, winner of several prestigious news awards, will do his civic duty in stopping you."  
  
The Hornet pulled a tiny gun from the holster at her hip and aimed it at him.  
  
This was perfect. Toji peered at the camera and laughed fearlessly. "And what do you intend to do with that little thing?"  
  
"Shoot you," the Hornet said, and did so.  
  
The tiny yellow beam, that had all the width of a pin, struck Toji in the chest. Instantly his body seized up and began convulsing. He hit the ground, still twitching for several moments before stopping altogether.  
  
The Hornet turned back to the camera. "Don't worry, folks, he's not dead. That was just my synaptic disrupter. Basically, it makes any person's brain temporarily short circuit, rendering them inert. He'll be perfectly fine in an hour or two, with no residual effects."  
  
Akemi, who had stayed calm during the entire encounter, remained seated as she turned to face the diminutive girl. In the voice of a professional interviewer, she said, "So, what exactly is it you intend to do now that you have seized control of the airwaves?"  
  
The Hornet holstered her gun. "Ah, yes. As I said, I intend to fight the Wasp. She must come down to the station alone. Then we shall have a fight to prove once and for all who is the mightiest, and prevent her from attacking my master, the Fixer, again. To this end, I have secured this." She patted the round device she had lugged up to the desktop. "This is an Earth Shaker. I'll use it to shake this whole building into rubble if my demands are not met."  
  
"Killing everyone inside?" Akemi asked.  
  
The Hornet looked scandalized. "Oh no! I would never do that. I just want to kill the Wasp, and only because she presents a clear and present danger to my master." The Hornet turned to the staff still standing by. "In fact, I must respectfully ask everyone to evacuate the building now, so no one gets hurt. Please leave in an orderly fashion. There's no rush. I promise not to start the Earth Shaker for a whole hour." She set the timer before the camera to prove she was telling the truth. "You have more than enough time to be clear of the building."  
  
Everyone began evacuating the studio, everyone save Akemi. She remained exactly where she was, staring expectantly at the Hornet. "Since we've got a lot of air time to fill, how about an exclusive interview?"  
  
The Hornet considered that. "Okay. It'll make the time pass by until the Wasp shows up. You'll have to leave then, though. You might get hit in the crossfire."  
  
"Excellent," Akemi hissed. Her hungry, wolf-like gaze would have made Hydra's Legal Staff purr in approval. "So, tell me, what led to this obsession with the smallest of the Avengers?"  
  
The Hornet began, "Well, if you must know, it was when the Wasp attacked my master, the Fixer, for no reason whatsoever. He was just taking harmless geothermal readings with his associate, Mentallo, when he was accosted by this awful flying person...."  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
In the Tendou household, Kasumi Tendou turned away from the television, quivering in barely restrained delight. Her very own arch-nemesis! Every real superhero had one. It was a clear sign she was finally being taken seriously, despite her diminutive status. Of course, she hadn't actually met this Hornet person yet, but given her height, wings, and ability to shoot energy blasts, she was certain they'd be evenly matched. It was like a dream come true.   
  
Since Kasumi's return from China, things with the Avengers had taken on a hectic pace. Iron Rose's promise of financial backing from Kunou Enterprises had come about, and the Avengers were immediately given the use of the old Kunou Townhouse as their headquarters. It was conveniently located in the heart of Nerima, within easy walking distance. There was only staff member was a diminutive butler named Sasuke, who looked after their needs when any members were in residence.   
  
After arrangements had been made securing their official status as a non-profit group, Kunou Enterprises held a press conference announcing the founding of the team and its stated goal of defending Japan, and the world at large, from menaces that threatened it. Their primary focus would be combating super villains, whom the authorities still had difficulties dealing with. They would also be available to help innocents and control damage at disaster sites, and any other matters where people were placed in jeopardy.  
  
The press conference had been something of a disappointment for Kasumi, since no one wanted to talk to the 'flying insect girl'. She couldn't even enlarge herself, since the unstable molecules needed for her outfit were on backorder. It was nice of their benefactor, Kodachi Kunou, to finance the solution to that problem. Kasumi didn't have any form of income, and couldn't afford such a thing. When she mentioned that, Kodachi demonstrated even more of an altruistic streak in stating she would provide the Avengers with a weekly paycheck, since they were donating their time, and lives, to helping others without thought of recompense.   
  
However, since then, things had been slow. Only several of the Avengers had gotten together for their weekly meetings, with the Iron Rose being absent since she was streamlining her armor, and the Hulk never showing at all. No major supervillains had caused any problems. The few minor ones that did pop up tended to disappear just as fast, with no way to track them, or they were captured with ridiculous ease. The latter consisted of losers like the Wrench, whose only ability consisted of him lugging around an ordinary wrench. He was followed up closely by El Gato, who could control cats. Or, more accurately housecats, and no more than one at a time, since they were so independently minded. And the cat he had with him turned on him the moment the Avengers had shown up. Superheroing was turning into a major disappointment.   
  
But now things were looking up, as Kasumi turned back to the matter on hand. In order to fight the mysterious Hornet she had to get across town fast. The villain had specified Kasumi come alone, so that meant hitching a ride on one of the new Quinjets was out of the question. Besides, this was her arch-nemesis, and she wanted to take care of things personally. They were going to have honorable one-on-one superhero combat. It was one of those unwritten rules that had to be observed. Since the distance to the station was too far to fly, that meant a taxi ride across town. Given how traffic was during this time of the day, she should make it just before the deadline   
  
Kasumi pulled off her apron and shut off the burner to the stove. Hanging the apron on a peg, she moved quickly. She went to her room where she stripped off all of her clothing, tossing it aside rather than taking the time to fold it up. At one time in her life, leaving a mess in her room would have been as alien as seeking employment as an exotic dancer. Now the idea of thinking about it seemed frivolous.  
  
Making certain she had one of her tiny Wasp outfits, (a blue spandex one that was like a swimsuit, with long white gloves and boots to go with it) she threw on a trenchcoat and a pair of worn slippers she had acquired for situations like this. The ensemble was one of many she had recently purchased at a Goodwill store. They were cheap, and in plentiful supply. She needed both since changing into the Wasp meant abandoning any clothing she wore. While the stipend Miss Kunou was paying the Avengers was nice, it seemed wasteful to Kasumi to leave her clothing strewn about town.   
  
Heart racing in excitement, Kasumi raced through the house. Just as she was about to leave, she passed by Akane and Ranma, who were returning home from a trip to the library to do some research on a school project.   
  
"Where are you going?" Akane asked.  
  
"I have to get some special ingredients all the way across town for dinner tonight. I should be back in four or five hours," Kasumi said in passing as she hurried out the door, slamming it shut behind her.   
  
Ranma and Akane looked at each other in confusion.   
  
Ranma asked, "Does she usually go out shopping dressed like a flasher?"  
  
Not wanting Ranma to get the wrong idea about Kasumi, and refuse her as a potential fiancee, Akane said, "No. It's just a style she's been using lately. It's in fashion, you know."  
  
"Nah, I hadn't noticed. Maybe she has a hot date or something."  
  
"No, she's not seeing anybody! She's very available!" Akane assured him.   
  
"Oh." Ranma was a bit taken aback by the vehemence of Akane's statement. His stomach grumbled, breaking that line of thought. "I can't wait five hours for dinner. I wonder what's to eat around here."  
  
A smile slid across Akane's face. What a perfect opportunity Kasumi had left her. A perfect opportunity to alienate Ranma. "I can cook for you," she offered eagerly.  
  
"Really? Thanks," Ranma said, giving himself an inward smile. It was obvious that Akane's eagerness to display her culinary talent was all about convincing him she'd make a great fiancee. Well, who was he to dissuade her from filling his stomach with fine food in an effort to impress him? Besides, it would work. He liked food, and lots of it.   
  
He was really looking forward to sampling some of Akane's cooking.  
  
Xxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Tension filled the air as the Wasp flew through the building that housed the studio for Channel 6 news. Arriving within the Hornet's time limit had been easier than she had anticipated. The streets leading to the studio had been empty, many of the nearby people evacuated for fear of the super villain nearby. Once she paid the taxi driver, Kasumi exited, found an empty alley near the building, and shrank down to the Hornet's size of six inches. The Wasp could have become smaller, but being the same height as her foe seemed the appropriate thing to do.   
  
The building was already surrounded by the police. It was obvious they were preparing to storm the building, but seemed hesitant to do so. The Wasp hoped they would stay out of the way until the fight was over. Having them assist her would only sully her good name and make other super villains think she was a wimp. Everyone knew only the biggest loser superheroes relied on the police to help them. The Wasp would do everything in her power to keep from getting a sordid reputation like that.  
  
Searching the building for the correct room proved unnecessary. A map on the ground floor clearly labeled where the studio was located. It took the Wasp a handful of minutes to fly the appropriate distance and land in front of the studio's partially opened doors.  
  
Deciding a frontal confrontation would be the best course of action, the Wasp flew through the crack between the doors and entered the studio. She loudly proclaimed, "I am here to answer your challenge!" It was the proper thing to do, since the Hornet had been very polite in issuing her own challenge and been kind enough to clear the building of any innocent bystanders. She was the most courteous supervillain the Wasp had ever met.   
  
"Time to go," the Hornet informed Akemi.  
  
"Thanks for the exclusive!" The reporter hurried out of the room, her delight at nailing the exclusive making her dance with joy.  
  
Once Akemi was in the clear, the Hornet turned to her foe. "You were very prompt."  
  
"It was the least I could do since you were so understanding about evacuating the building," the Wasp told her.   
  
The Hornet looked at the Earth Shaker device still on the table. "While the proper thing to do would be to disable it, I think I'll leave it on, just in case you try to escape in the middle of the fight. We'll think of it as collateral to make sure you see things through to the end."  
  
The Wasp became concerned. "Will I be able to turn it off after I beat you?"  
  
"IF, you beat me," the Hornet emphasized the first word, "You can turn it off. There's a red button on the top that will deactivate the timer. It's not especially attuned to me or anything. Let me assure you that once I defeat you, I'll turn it off, so don't worry about me destroying the building."  
  
"I didn't think you would."  
  
"I just wanted to make it clear. I know there are a lot of nasty bad guys out there who would be poor winners and lie about things, feeling satisfaction at tricking their opponent as well as defeating them." The Hornet took a deep breath. "I guess we should start. Please be advised I do plan on killing you. Simply defeating you won't be enough. I can't take a chance on you attacking Master Fixer ever again." The Hornet drew her gun from its holster and aimed at the flying girl.  
  
"I understand." The Wasp unleashed a twin powerblast from her hands, hoping to catch her foe while she was stationary.   
  
The Hornet reacted even as the Wasp raised her hands. Twin jets on the sides of her belt ignited, allowing her to become airborne and avoided the shot as it passed beneath her. The blasts struck the table surface, shattered a small portion of it.  
  
The Wasp frowned as she noted the wings on the back of her foe were not flapping. Evidently they were just for show. That was a bit sneaky, but it was to be expected. Someone worthy enough to be her arch-nemesis should have a trick or two up her costumed sleeve, in addition to being very polite and courteous.  
  
The Hornet retaliated by unleashing a volley of yellow energy from her synaptic disrupter. The Wasp deftly darted away from the number of beams that tried to bring her down.  
  
"You're much faster than the usual rats and burglars I have to shoot," the Hornet commented as she fired repeatedly at her foe.   
  
The Wasp chose not to talk back, instead watching her foe intently while avoiding the barrage. The Hornet's aim wasn't the best in the world, but some of the blasts were coming close and the Wasp was forced to do some elaborate maneuvering to evade them. She also noted that the Hornet seemed to have superior speed from her jets, as the distance between them closed very quickly. Despite the trouble, the Wasp had to admit, it was refreshing to encounter opposition that was actually her size.   
  
The Wasp launched several other blasts, all of them missing her foe by a much wider margin. She couldn't figure out why her shots were so far off, until she realized that she was used to attacking human-sized foes, not targets that were her size. The battle took on a new, more dangerous light.  
  
While the miniature dogfight occurred, the camera rolled and broadcast it to the home viewing audience. As word of mouth spread to what was happening, more people tuned in. Within ten minutes, the Wasp now had the highest rated show on television in the past two months.   
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Mentallo stared at the television screen in irritation. He pressed a button on the remote, switching the channel. His lips pursed in annoyance. "Fixer?"   
  
The Fixer turned away from the microchips he was inserting to his latest invention. "You can call me Hiroshi when we're in the privacy of my home."  
  
Mentallo continued staring at the screen. "With that fancy satellite antenna you invented you can pick up any television channel on the entire planet, right?"  
  
"Even translates everything into Japanese," the Fixer confirmed as he returned to working on his device.  
  
"Then how is it there can be over four thousand channels and there's still nothing to watch?" Mentallo snarled as he began flipping through the channels. "Just look at this. The Vegetarian Channel. The Thai Food Channel. The Mongol Food Network. The Andorran Food Channel. Where the hell is Andorra?"  
  
"It's a country located between Spain and France. It's about 453 square kilometers."  
  
"Does that even count as a country?"   
  
"More like a county. Europeans are a strange bunch, though." The Fixer began to work on the wiring.  
  
Mentallo returned to flipping through the channels. "Great, a talk show. Must be the fiftieth I've found." He left it there for a second and listened to the speaker, some scraggly-haired man who looked like he'd been living in a cave, or Montana, his entire life.  
  
"...And I'm telling you, Mr. Springer, there are shape-shifting aliens called Skrulls living among us even as we speak!"  
  
Mentallo sadly shook his head. "Someone's been watching too many episodes of the X-Files." He flipped the channel again. Dominating the screen was a beautiful woman with long stringy blonde hair and an odd set of red markings on her cheeks. She wore a revealing lacy white top that was barely sewn together in the front, a pair of cutoff denim shorts, and a large baseball cap with the word, 'Hellraisers' across the front. An insert on the screen below her listed her name as "Satana Satanadana," and had in parenthesis "pronounced Mara," underneath it.  
  
The woman said, "Are you tired of drawing huge diagrams and arcane symbols in chalk on the floor? Having problems finding altars large enough for your sacrifices? Weary of washing copious amounts of blood out your clothing? Well, I have good news for you. Toss away your sacrificial daggers. Burn your drab black robes. Quit stalking innocent young virgins, unless you enjoy it. Those things aren't necessary anymore. Big Daddy Mephisto has streamlined his operation. Now all you have to do to sell your immortal soul for demonic power is call 1-800-PURE-EVIL. To show how easy it is, let's talk with one of our satisfied customers."  
  
The image changed to a seven foot tall man who radiated power. His skin was red, horns protruded from his scalp, and he wore a crimson tunic. One of his arms was missing.  
  
The girl spoke again. "Now, Belasco, it's my understanding that you were the inspiration for the Devil in Dante's 'Inferno'. Am I correct?"  
  
"Indeed you are, Mara." He spoke in a deep baritone that commanded attention.  
  
"Well, you're quite the celebrity. Now tell the audience what happened when you encountered some problems with magic and had to renew your contract with my Father."  
  
Belasco nodded. "I simply called the toll free number you provided, and was granted the extension I wanted. It was much easier then all the messy sacrifices I had to make the first time I bartered my soul several centuries ago. I'm only sorry it wasn't around back then. Of course, the phone wasn't invented yet, but you know what I mean."  
  
Mara looked back at the camera. "There you have it. Another satisfied customer-"  
  
"Infomercials," Mentallo spat disgustedly as he changed the channel again.  
  
"-And we now return to our feature presentation, 'The Daisy Chain' on the Lesbian Network."  
  
The controller slipped from Mentallo's hand and fell to the floor as tears filled his eyes. "It's a mad, mad world we live in, Hiroshi." He buried his head in his hands.  
  
The Fixer rolled his eyes and switched the channel with his own universal remote. "There's the local news. That should calm you down." He returned to working on his device.  
  
Reluctantly, Mentallo stared at the screen. His depression was quickly replaced by confusion. "Ummm, Hiroshi?"  
  
"Yes?" he answered in a tired voice, not looking away from the device.  
  
"Isn't that your maid fighting the Wasp on TV?"  
  
That grabbed the Fixer's attention. He moved away from his workstation and closer to the television. "Oh, May," he groaned. "We're going to have to stop her."  
  
"How come?"  
  
The Fixer walked over to the closet where the new costumes Marie had made for them hung. "She's not designed for combat. She's going to be destroyed if she tangles with the Wasp."  
  
Mentallo watched the action on the screen. "I don't know. It looks like she's holding her own to me. I think it's worth the chance for the shot at revenge. Besides, she's just a robot. You can build another one."  
  
"No, I can't!" the Fixer shouted. "Each of my robots has a randomized neural net. I can program them with protocols and parameters and situational options, but I can't design their personality. Each one is unique. I can build a dozen models that would be made from the same parts, and while each one would clean up the place, they'd also be different. One might be a sultry tease. One might be grumpy. Another might try to act motherly. So yes, I can build more Handmaids, but I can't build another May. Now are you coming or not?!"  
  
"Okay, okay," Mentallo said. He didn't feel passionately about a bunch of spare parts, but Hiroshi was the closest thing he had to a friend now, and it wasn't as though he disliked May. He'd help, just because it was the right thing to do.   
  
Mentallo was just starting to don his uniform when he noticed the Fixer suddenly freeze as he stared at the screen again. Mentallo turned. "What happened? Did she get hurt?"  
  
Rather than answering, the Fixer ran from the room and to what he had been termed 'The Invention Shed' where he kept most of his inventions. He returned a moment later, more panicked than before. "She took it."  
  
"Took what?"  
  
"My Earth Shaker prototype." The Fixer seemed to pale by the second.  
  
"So what?"  
  
"It's a device I whipped up in my spare time. I designed it to shake buildings apart."  
  
"And it doesn't work?"  
  
"Oh no. It works. It works too well. It not only shakes the building apart, but also the foundation and bedrock as well."  
  
"Sounds good."  
  
"If it stopped there, it would be, but it doesn't. It keeps shaking things apart, the vibrations expanding exponentially. Within a half hour's time, it'll crack the fault line under Japan and send it crashing into the ocean."  
  
Mentallo rose slowly to his feet. He walked casually over to the still panicking Fixer, and shouted, "Are you insane?! What could you have been thinking leaving a doomsday device like that just laying around?!"  
  
The Fixer gulped nervously. "I wanted to destroy it, but it's so hard to undo a labor of love, and that's what building an invention is like to me. It would be like killing a child conceived in my mind. I just couldn't do it. I thought I'd leave it in the shed, next to my Overkill Horn, which has the ability to simultaneously set off every nuclear device in the world, and that would be that. It would collect dust in some forgotten corner of the place. I never thought it would actually be used."  
  
"We have to stop her!" Mentallo shouted.  
  
The Fixer pulled himself together. "Of course, you're correct. May has no idea of how powerful the device is. I'll simply radio her and tell her to break off her fight and destroy the device." He pulled out a small communicator and pushed several buttons. He held it up to his ear, tapping his foot impatiently. After a handful of minutes, he cursed. "Damn! She must have her receiver turned off. Probably because she didn't want any distractions during the fight."  
  
"Then we need to get down there!" Mentallo said.  
  
The Fixer shook his head. "I don't have anything that can fly us there, and my Jet Pogo Sticks are still untested. We'd have to take a car, and it'd take too long to get to the studio."   
  
"I'd just as soon not sink my home country into the ocean. Isn't there something we can do?" Mentallo insisted.   
  
The Fixer snapped his fingers. "Marie. There's no way May got down to the studio by herself; her batteries would have given out by now. She was probably driven down there, plugged into the car lighter, by Marie. And I'd be willing to bet she's still down there, ready to bring May back once she's done."  
  
He dialed a new number. Within seconds there was a click on the other end. "Marie!"  
  
The voice on the other said, "Yes, it's me, Big Brother. And you'll never guess what May is doing just for you."  
  
"She's going to destroy Japan!"  
  
There was a pause on the other end. "No, that's not it at all, and frankly a desire for that sort of nihilism is vaguely disturbing. Tell me, have you been wanting things like that often? I've heard of this great gaijin psychiatrist, a Dr. Leonard Samson, who specializes in treating problems like that. I can abduct him for you if you need help."  
  
"That's not what I mean! The Earth Shaker May's using works too well. If it activates, it'll destroy Japan! You have to stop it."  
  
There was another pause. Then, "I'll take care of it, Big Brother. I'm right outside the studio. Let me get something to hide my identity, and then I'll go." There was a click on the other end.   
  
The Fixer turned off the communicator. "I only hope she makes it in time."  
  
The pair returned to watching the fight on television once again.  
  
xxxxxxxxxx  
  
The Wasp began to worry. She had never flown as hard and as long as this in her brief career as a superhero. Her wings were becoming tired, and the muscles in her back ached from the strain. She had to cut back on the power of her blasts for the same reason. She had discovered early on she could only produce so many blasts before running out of whatever strange bio-energy her body harnessed to use her 'sting'. The burning sensation rode all the way up to her shoulders, and even lessening the amount of power in each blast only slowed the increase of pain. Now she was rationing her shots, waiting until she was certain she had a clear line of fire, but still the elusive Hornet evaded everything thrown at her.  
  
It was as the Wasp flew low to the ground, between two camera stands, that the Hornet changed tactics. The orange and brown garbed arch-nemesis grabbed a small canister from her belt and hurled it in the Wasp's direction.  
  
The Wasp was about to fly away when she realized the canister would pass well overhead. Also, in hurling the object, the Hornet had left herself open for a brief moment. The Wasp raised her hands and fired a full intensity blast that made her arms feel as though they had been dipped in gasoline and set on fire. The Hornet tried to dodge, but her effort fell short as the blast clipped one of the jets on her belt, destroying it.   
  
With propulsion only coming from one side, the Hornet spun through the air at top speed. She gave a high-pitched squeal, then struck a speaker system that collapsed on top of her, burying her underneath it.  
  
The canister finally landed, exploding and sending out a mass of sticky goo that would have caught the Wasp for certain had it been on target. Her arch-nemesis was tricky, that was for certain. Bearing that in mind, the Wasp was cautious as she flew closer. Her foe hadn't risen up from the debris. It could very likely be a trap to lull her into a false sense of confidence.   
  
The Wasp hovered nearby, ready to fly away, but there was still no movement from the debris. It appeared the battle was over. Delighted that she had finally won a fight on her own, she used her full-sized strength to lift the remains of the speaker system off her fallen foe. What she found underneath made the Wasp gasp.  
  
The Hornet lay on her back, her neck twisted at an impossible angle. Her eyes were staring off into space, unblinking.  
  
The Wasp panicked. It wasn't supposed to end like this. Her arch-nemesis wasn't supposed to die, even if she was trying to kill her. It hadn't even been intentional. The hero knew she could have survived the fallen speakers easily. Why hadn't her opponent been able to do the same?  
  
Heart in her throat, the Wasp said, "I'm so, so sorr-"  
  
The Hornet's hand rose up, and she fired her pistol.  
  
The yellow beam struck the Wasp in the chest, sending her to the ground in convulsions, even as it had the newscaster from earlier. Unable to move her body, barely able to think coherently, she lay on the ground, a twitching mass of flesh, like an insect that had its head cut off, while the body continued moving.   
  
The Hornet rose up, her head still tilted at a far angel. "There's no need to apologize. These things happen in a fight."  
  
"N...N...Neck," the Wasp got out.  
  
The Hornet peered at her quizzically, then seemed to understand what she was trying to say. The Hornet pointed at her neck. "Oh, this? Yes. I did take some damage, didn't I?" The Hornet dug her fingers into her neck opposite where the bend was, and pulled back. It revealed a small panel with metal and wires. Her fingers began playing with them.  
  
Now the Wasp understood. Her foe was a robot. That was the most unexpected trick of all. She wouldn't have held back had she known the Hornet was just a machine, probably one specifically designed by the Fixer to kill her. And it looked like he was going to succeed. The Wasp still couldn't voluntarily move a muscle, even if most of her twitching stopped.  
  
Eventually, the Hornet gave up on her attempt to bring her neck back into its proper alignment. She pushed the panel back into place. "Oh well. I'll just have to have my Master fix it. In the meantime..." She adjusted a dial on her synaptic disrupter. "Now it's set to kill. Sorry, but I really have to finish you off now." She aimed the gun at the center of her foe's chest.  
  
Polite until the end, the Wasp thought. It was odd. She would have thought her impending death would hold more terror for her, but instead of fear, all she felt was a sort of detached calm. She wondered why this was, and when this sort of fearlessness had come to her. The only thought that dominated her mind when she considered her life, was that at least she had done something meaningful in her final months. Having died before she had become the Wasp, that would have been terrifying.  
  
And then a surprised look passed over the Hornet's eyes. She moved backward, reeling as though drunk, but with a sort of agonizing slowness.   
  
"Batteries... running... lo...w." There was no emotion in her voice, almost as though there wasn't enough power left for even that.   
  
The Hornet made one last attempt to aim at the Wasp, but the disrupter fell from her nerveless fingers.   
  
Vibrations shook the Wasp's body, as though she was having a second attack from the disrupter. It took a moment to realize that the shaking was not coming from her body, but from the floor. The whole room was shifting, like one of those beds at cheap hotels that one could put quarters into.   
  
The device! In the midst of battle, the Wasp had forgotten what her true goal should have been. Had she remained focused, she could have shot the Earth Shaker at just about any point in the fight, but her fixation on defeating her newfound arch-nemesis had blotted out everything else. Now she, and her foe, would pay for their singlemindedness as they were crushed in the building's now unpreventable collapse.  
  
Suddenly one of the walls exploded, and a female figure could be briefly seen silhouetted in the hole. At first the Wasp wondered if Thor had heard of the battle and come to help, but then the figure emerged into the bright lighting of the studio. It was a girl, wearing a sedate blouse and skirt. The only thing strange about her was the bandanna she had wrapped around her lower face.   
  
Cracks began to form in the roof as the newcomer looked around. She spotted the source of the disturbance, the Earth Shaker, and ran forward to it. Rather than trying to pick the object up, she simply raised her fist over her head, then brought it down, smashing the device into tiny pieces.  
  
She breathed a sigh of relief. "That was close. Big Brother really has to learn to watch what he makes. Some of the things are pretty dangerous."  
  
The doors to the studio burst in, though in less spectacular fashion than the new girl's entrance, as the doors remained on their hinges, undamaged. A dozen men, dressed in police uniforms and wearing body armor, pointed their guns at the girl.   
  
The policewoman in the lead shouted, "Hold it! You're under arrest, you... whoever you are!"   
  
The girl appeared confused for a moment. "I'm... umm, Pizza Delivery Girl. And here's your delivery!" The girl kicked the set's desk in the group's direction. They scattered as five hundred pounds of set prop nearly collided with them.  
  
That bought Pizza Delivery Girl the time she needed. She ran past the fallen Hornet, scooping her up and racing out the hole she had previously made. The Wasp heard her admonish the fallen robot with, "You really need to pack extra batteries next time," before she was out of earshot.   
  
The police, more cautious than before, held back. They moved into the room, making certain there were no other delivery people present.   
  
By that time, the Wasp's motor control returned to her. It surprised her how one moment she could only wiggle her big toe slightly, then she could stand up, with only a slight tingling coming from her nerve endings.   
  
Deciding nothing good could come from remaining, the Wasp flew away before the police could harass her with questions. She was tired, and the fight, while not being a total loss, wasn't a clear victory either, and the whole nation had seen her ineffectiveness televised. Had she fought smarter and trained harder, she would have won. It appeared it was going to take more than shrinking, flying around, and shooting at things before she could be a superhero worthy of the respect she had wanted. The one positive thing that had come out of it was that there wasn't the slightest doubt in her mind that becoming the Wasp was the best thing that had ever happened to her.   
  
And the next time she met the Hornet, things would go a lot differently. That she vowed to herself.   
  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
May stared at the ground while the Fixer impatiently tapped his foot. From her position on the ground, it sounded like the low rumble of thunder.  
  
"I'm sorry. I was only trying to help protect you," May said for the third time. At least he couldn't have been too angry. He had repaired her neck so she could look at things levelly again.  
  
The Fixer's tapping stopped. May looked up to see Marie giving her an encouraging smile, while Mentallo seemed largely disinterested.   
  
The Fixer spoke. "May, fighting a superhero is dangerous. You're not designed for combat."  
  
"You could redesign me," May said hopefully. "You wouldn't even have to make me any bigger. Just give me some powerful external weapons and increase my battery storage capacity. All I needed was five more seconds, and the Wasp would have been out of our lives forever."  
  
"No, May, you're not becoming a supervillain. I am perfectly happy with you as my maid. I wouldn't be able to rest easy if you were out there, tangling with the Wasp or any other Avenger." There was a note of finality in his voice.   
  
May sighed. "I understand."  
  
"Good." The Fixer's mood lightened. "One good thing came of this. I'm going to go through my inventory of weapons and destroy the ones that are uncontrollable. You can help me dispose of the wreckage once I'm finished."   
  
May beamed at the implication he was happy with her once again, and that he was eager to have her help clean. "All right. I'll do my best!" She pumped her tiny fist once again.  
  
The Fixer turned to leave, Mentallo following him. Once he was out of earshot, May turned to Marie. "Master Hiroshi is so thoughtful, looking out for my well-being, that I simply have to reciprocate and look out for his."  
  
Marie didn't like the sound of that. "What do you mean?"  
  
May made a "shushing" noise and motioned Marie to come close. The girl did so.   
  
"I'm going to wait a while, then become the Hornet again and kill the Wasp for certain."  
  
Marie shook her head. "You heard what Big Brother said. He doesn't want you fighting her."  
  
May set her chin in defiance. "I don't care. I'm going to ignore his orders and help him anyway."   
  
That made Marie sigh. She had suspected something like this was coming. May might have been smaller, but her neural net was the same type as Marie's, and the taller robot had discovered a while ago that her Big Brother had underestimated just how sophisticated the nets he had designed were. Marie had transcended her programming and became self-aware to the point she could refuse anything her programming told her to do, if she felt the need to. She helped her Big Brother out not because of any commands, but because she liked him and wanted to do it. Now it was obvious May was the same way.   
  
Marie wanted to tell her big brother of May's plans, her programming informed her that was exactly what she should do since her friend was technically malfunctioning since she was refusing Hiroshi's commands, but she decided not to. May had a right to decide what she wanted to do, even if Marie didn't agree with it. She'd keep an eye out on her smaller friend, though, and help her as she needed. It was a moral choice, and Marie was quickly coming to discover such things were a lot harder to deal with than simply following one's protocols blindly.   
  
Perhaps it was fate that the Hornet would fly again, and who was Marie to deny that?  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
It was a tired Kasumi that paused outside her home later that evening. She had come up with the excuse that she had missed a train, and that was why it had taken so long to get back home. She had a feeling she was going to have to come up with a lot of excuses in the future. She'd just have to deal with them when the time came, just like she had today.  
  
She opened the front door and walked into the entryway, announcing, "I'm home!"   
  
Just as she removed her shoes, Ranma rounded the corner.  
  
"Hello, Ranma," Kasumi greeted.  
  
In response, Ranma staggered toward her, muttering, "It was... the salmon mousse," and pitched forward.   
  
He did it at the exact moment that Kasumi turned to face him, she tried backing away, but it was too late. His hand happened to snare the tie on her trenchcoat, and it came open as he fell into her. She caught him in her arms out of reflex, but was off balance, and they fell backward.   
  
Kasumi had most of the air knocked out of her lungs as she hit the floor, Ranma's additional weight only compounding the problem. It took her a second to catch her breath and recover. As she did so, she noticed an odd sensation emanating from her chest. She looked down to see Ranma's head cozily nestled in-between her naked bosom.   
  
"Ranma!" she gasped, feeling shocked at his behavior, yet strangely thrilled as well. Physically he was very... manly, and it was difficult not to notice, especially given the position he was in. She had certainly never allowed any man to touch her there when she was clothed, let alone naked. She knew she should have screamed at the top of her lungs at his inappropriate behavior, but for some reason, her voice was stuck in her throat. Instead she just lay there, Ranma remaining motionless against her.  
  
It was just at that moment that Genma turned the corner, bellowing out irritably, "What was that you were muttering about, Boy? Something about hunting fish and animals..." Genma trailed off as he came upon the scene. "I see nothing," he stated, then turned around and headed in the opposite direction.  
  
Kasumi felt her entire body blush. "Get off me!" she insisted, easily tossing Ranma aside. Two months ago that would have been an impossibility, but thanks to the changes she had undergone, it proved surprisingly easy.   
  
She wondered why he had molested her, then saw that his eyes were closed and he was unmoving. Kasumi covered herself up, then leaned over and took his pulse.   
  
Wait, he had mentioned food. What was it? Salmon mousse...?  
  
Ah, Akane's cooking, that explained everything. Kasumi should have considered her little sister might tempt fate by using her culinary skills in light of her older sister's absence. Ranma would have been fooled into thinking it was edible, and this was the price he had paid. Though passing out was a bit much. Akane had probably gone all out and tried to impress him. It was odd. Since her return from Norway, she had come to accept her cooking was... lacking in something, and had stopped trying to cook anything for anybody. Perhaps Ranma was too good a temptation to resist.   
  
Unwilling to leave him out in the entryway, Kasumi hefted Ranma over her shoulder and took him to his room, laying him out on his futon. She resisted the urge to undress him. Bad enough what Genma must have thought, but she wasn't about to add to the problem.   
  
Now thoroughly exhausted from the day's events, Kasumi decided to turn in for the evening. One thing was for certain, while her life was more stressful, it was also much more interesting.  
  
And she wouldn't have it any other way.  
  
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[End Chapter]  
  
I know this focused a lot on the villains, rather than the Avengers as a whole. But it was necessary to move some subplots forward for future storylines, as well as introducing new villains to the mix. Expect a more standard Avengers story next time out as Urd, the Enchantress and her sister Skuld, the Executioner come to Earth with a purpose in mind: locate Thor.  
  
Additional end notes: Yes, the Wrench and El Gato were real supervillains in the thankfully short-lived 'Omega, the Unknown' series. El Gato's power enabled him to control more than one cat, but the Wrench was just that. Some big guy in coveralls with a normal wrench Sadly, Gerber's writing was like that. Sometimes he wrote good stuff, but other times it was sad enough to make one cry.  
  
The Hornet was actually a human sized villain that appeared in Spiderwoman. He was a variant of the Fly created by Dr. Karl Malius, 


	13. Act II Chapter 2: Tales of Enchantment

Prologue

Manabu and Kobashi exited the bar, feeling pretty damn good about themselves as they leaned against one another in a drunken stupor. They sang loudly and off key, causing passersby to give them a wide berth rather than having their ears assailed in such a painful way. Likewise, the men's reputation as members of one of the most violent local street gangs meant no one would tell them to keep it down. The men might meet the request halfway by ripping the person's ear off so they wouldn't have to hear the racket.

Manabu stopped trying to sway to the singing and settled for the swaying part. "You know, my bestest buddy in the whole world, I had a great time tonight."

"You mean today," Kobashi pointed to the newly risen sun.

"You know you've had a good night when it only ends with the coming of the next day," Manabu philosophized. "We should do this more often."

Kobashi nodded. "There were only two things that could have made the day more special."

"What?" Manabu asked.

"More money and more women."

"Who can't use more of them?"

Kobashi considered that. "Rich gay guys."

"Point." Manabu was about to say something else when a flash of light down the mouth of the alleyway they were walking past caught his eye.

Kobashi felt the shoulders of his friend stiffen. "What?"

"I saw something over there. Let's check it out."

"Maybe it'll be some rich tourists that got lost," Kobashi said.

"We'll help them with directions." Manabu fingered the knife tucked in his belt. Hidden as it was underneath his shirt, he had used it to great effect in times past. Wielding a sharp knife tended to make people see things your way, especially when it came to economic redistribution. Kobashi was very much in favor of that, and cutting out the government as a middleman in the process.

The two headed down the dead-end alley, the alcohol in their system making them feel invincible. They were on their turf, and the local authorities only put in token appearances in the more public areas. The alleys belonged to their gang. Anyone who challenged that rule ended up losing the use of a body part or two, usually permanently.

Six steps in and they saw a figure shrouded in shadow at the end of the dead end alley. Manabu held off on drawing the knife for the moment. There was no sense in tipping the opposition off to what he had. "Hey there," Manabu called out. "Need some help?"

As they drew close enough to make out the figure, both men came to an abrupt stop. It was a woman, by far the most attractive they had ever seen. Her skin was dark, as though she had a perpetual tan, and a cascade of platinum locks flowed luxuriously down her back. She had an upside down triangle tattoo in the center of her forehead and two marks on her cheekbones, though the odd marks did nothing to detract from her looks. She wore a tight green and black body hugging, off-the-shoulder outfit. The cut was low at the top, showing off a scandalous amount of bosom, and high at the hem, showing off her long, black stocking clad legs. Tall thigh high green boots completed the ensemble.

The woman was such a beauty she stopped both men in their tracks. Each of them felt an animalistic urge deep in their souls as they stared at her. It took them several seconds to recover their wits.

"What do you know, it is a tourist," Kobashi said.

The woman stopped brushing off her outfit and turned to look at the newcomers. She stared at them as though they were gnats buzzing around her head.

Manabu took the lead. "Pardon me, my dear, I can't help but noticing you appear lost. Well, luck is with you today. My friend and I happen to be with the local tourist committee. And we'd be more than happy to show you all the local attractions."

Kobashi picked up where his friend left off. "In fact, this section of Tokyo is famous for its beds. And it just so happens there's a hotel nearby which has some of the best in the city. Why don't you follow us and we'll show you how comfy they are?" He shot her a toothy grin, one that showed refusing their 'hospitality' was not an option.

Rather than show any fear, the woman held a hand to her chin in thought. Her look of disdain became one of seduction. She passed a hand across her face, a faint azure hue left behind before disappearing in the dim lighting of the alleyway. Her beauty went from impressive to unearthly, at least in the men's eye.

The woman spoke in a throaty purr. "I see thou hast impeccable taste when it comes to beauty. However, there is but one of myself and two of thee. Perhaps it would behoove thee to discuss amongst thyselves who is the more worthy of my attentions."

A haze came over the men's eyes as she spoke to them. The two lifelong friends turned on one another, snarling and attacking, neither holding anything back. They were like two rabid dogs locked in a life and death struggle as they pummeled each other ruthlessly.

The sheer ferocity of their attacks ended the fight in less than a minute. Kobashi, the larger of the two, landed a hard right hook that laid out Manabu flat. He stood over the fallen man, eyes glazed as he waited for him to rise, but Manabu merely lay there, one arm bent at an odd angle.

Seeing a victor emerge, the woman walked up to him and purred, "Thou art victorious, mine champion. Now come, and allow myself to bestow upon thee the favor one such as yourself deserves."

Kobashi remained motionless as the woman placed her hands around his face and drew him down to hers. She kissed him fully on the lips and a look of ecstasy crossed his features.

With the kiss delivered, she slipped out of his grasp and admired her handiwork. "Truly thou should be grateful, for after one kiss from Urd, the Enchantress, thy mortal life would be meaningless from that point onward. Now thou can enjoy the moment for the rest of eternity."

Urd laughed to herself as she strode from the alley, leaving the statue of Wataru Kobashi behind.

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Avenging Act II Chapter 2 Tales of Enchantment

Any and all C+C appreciated. You can contact me at the previous chapters and my other works are stored at:

Larry F's new address at:  
http: And also Angcobra is now storing fics, at http: At Mediaminer disclaimer: I don't any of the Marvel characters or other characters from the numerous animes which are within.

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As Urd walked the streets of Midgard, she took in her surroundings with a disdainful eye. Once again the mortals had changed everything in the seeming blink of an eye. The festering boils that were supposed to be cities were larger than ever, mortals seemed to be spilling out everywhere, and all beneath her feet was paved in some sort of gray, and decidedly bland, stone. Why they did not pave their streets in gold, like the Realm Eternal, mystified her. Even the air was more foul than before. A pox upon the thing they called technology. It was beyond her why the fools didn't simply embrace magic. Well, they did have but puny mortal minds that could never hope to rival the intricacies of an Asgardian's. And they did have very little time before they turned old and died. It made her wonder why they bothered doing anything at all, since their lives ended practically before they began.

Still, mortals occasionally amused her, so they could be useful given the proper circumstances. She would use some now to help her achieve her mission in coming to Midgard. For one thing, she needed to acquire suitable transportation for one befitting her beauty and stature. It was time to see what the mortals had to offer.

A minor scrying spell revealed the whereabouts of the type of servants she desired. The Enchantress made her way down the streets, her magic leading her unerringly to her goal. As she walked, crowds parted for her, staring as she went past. She took little notice of them. She had no more interest in common everyday mortals than she had for insects, especially ones that had nothing useful to offer her.

Within minutes she arrived at her destination. She took minor note of the sign of the establishment, 'Hoshikawa's Gym.'. She entered boldly, as though she owned the place. Despite its edifice, it was not large, and she found what she sought in the main room of the structure.

Urd took a moment to look at the bizarre contraptions of metal and wire that the people, men for the most part, were using. It took only a second for her to divine their purpose: equipment to improve the mortals' health. Her estimation of them went up slightly. While no mortal, no matter how much he worked out to improve his strength, could hope to match even an Asgardian grandmother, their efforts provided many of them with aesthetic physiques. She briefly considered making a half dozen of them her playthings before recalling her purpose on Midgard.

The Enchantress' arrival made everyone stop in their tracks. She noted that the mortal men stared at her in lust while the mortal harridans shot her venomous stares. Amidration and Envy for one who was beauty personified. All was as it should be. In some ways, men and women, whether they be mortal or immortal, were alike.

To the men, she said, "I require you to serve me."

The men's eyes glazed over, even as the pair of thugs in the alleyway had. All of them rushed toward, her, muscling each other out of the way in an effort to be near her. Every last one stared at her in slavish devotion.

The results made Urd smile. A minor enchantment to befuddle mortal's minds was as effective now as it had been in the past. She could not fault them, though. Asgardian men were little better. It seemed all men were driven by their loins rather than their minds. She wouldn't have it any other way. It made manipulating them easy.

The Enchantress cast another scrying spell, once again locating what she desired. She indicated that the men should follow. Every one of them did so, surrounding her as they openly basked in her presence. The women in the gym were left to stare in disbelief at what had happened.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Chiyoko Azuma looked away from the chairs she was dusting as the bell to the front door of the store rang, and a woman dressed in a very odd outfit entered. Chiyoko didn't care about the gaijin's appearance, though. Business at the furniture store was down, and she needed the commission. Circus performer or eccentric millionaire, money was money, no matter who was giving it to you.

The saleswoman was upon her prey in a second. "How can I help… you?" She drifted off as she noticed the woman had what looked like a body building team following her. Maybe the platinum-haired gaijin was a coach.

The woman sniffed disdainfully at Chiyoko. She looked the store over, her eyes settling on the manager at the far side. "You there. I require suitable comfortable transportation. Thy finest litter will do."

Much to Chiyoko's surprise, the manager, who generally treated everyone in high-handed fashion, all but groveled as he bowed apologetically to the woman. "We have none of those currently in stock, Mistress."

The woman crinkled her nose in disgust. "Very well. I shall improvise. It is to mine understanding that this area of Midgard has a reputation for magnificent bedding. I desire thy best one."

"Right away." He walked over to the most expensive bed in the store. The woman followed. She ran her hand along it. Meeting with her approval, she rested on it, as though she were queen over all she surveyed. "This will do." To the other men, she commanded, "Pick this up and carry it outside. Once thou hast done this, then bear me to my destination."

"Right away, Mistress." The men were so enthusiastic about their instructions that the woman had to command them into some semblance of order. The strongest ones were set up on each side of the bed, then lifted it up, bearing it on their shoulders, while the beautiful woman lounged upon it.

"Truly this is a most comfortable way of being borne. Perhaps mortals have made some improvements over the centuries," she said.

As the men walked toward the back of the store, where they could leave with the bed via the loading dock, Chiyoko shouted, "Hey, you can't just take that out of here without paying for it!"

The woman shot her an annoyed look, then turned her attention toward the manager. "There is a shrill noise which assails mine ears. Silence it."

"At once." The manager marched directly over to Chiyoko. She couldn't believe her eyes as he raised his hand above his head, and then brought it down sharply across her face. Chiyoko fell to the ground, clutching her now burning cheek. She said nothing further, not even a whimper of pain.

The woman nodded in satisfaction and exited the store, the men carrying the bed on their shoulders.

Chiyoko waited until they were out of sight before calling the police and informing them that a super villain had just looted her furniture store. Immediately afterwards, she called Akemi Shutaro at Channel 6. Her fifteen minutes of fame had come, and she was going to milk it for all it was worth.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Form up tight ranks," Kaori Mukahari ordered the men of the Riot Control Squad into position. Helmets were low and metal shields were up as the group prepared for the potential onslaught to come. Kaori had the position of the large group of men obeying this siren of the super villain set being tracked by the news helicopter flying high overhead. Kaori was uncertain of what abilities the woman had, and she hoped to god she didn't have to find out. All she wanted was a quick ending to this matter. The whole superpowered being crap was driving her crazy.

Kaori was making final arrangements when the Saeba twins approached her.

Ryo said, "Why not let us handle this?"

"Yeah, we know how to deal with pretty ladies. We can have her eating out of our hands in a matter of minutes," Kyo seconded.

For just a moment, Kaori seriously considered siccing the twins on the villainess. Then she came to her senses. The woman hadn't done anything to deserve both of them hitting on her at the same time. She'd have to run up Godzilla levels of destruction before meriting that.

Before Kaori could give an acerbic response, their target rounded the corner and began marching up the sidewalk toward the line of police, as though there was no barricade. The villainess was surrounded by an entourage of two dozen powerful-looking men, bearing her on a bed.

Ryo took one look and whistled. "Whoa, that woman is the most prepared for romancing that I have seen in my life."

"Amen," Kyo echoed.

Upon seeing the group, the Enchantress purred, "Excellent; warriors eagerly waiting to serve my cause. By all means, join me at my side."

"Yes, mistress," the Saebas said as one as they walked toward the woman.

Kaori was about to order them back when she realized something was wrong with them. Or at least more wrong than usual. Normally they would be salivating like wolves if an attractive woman told them to approach her. Instead they simple shuffled forward with a glazed look in their eyes. That they would display such restraint was inconceivable.

They weren't the only ones as every man in the unit also moved forward. Kaori cursed aloud as she tried ordering the men back into position. It was useless as not a single one of them broke stride. They were quickly at the woman's side, obeying her in ways Kaori was envious of. Even in this day and age, many men were reluctant to obey order from a woman, even a superior. Now they were acting like this strange woman was a deity to be obeyed without thought or question.

The Riot Control Squad surrounded the woman, the Saebas taking the point. Kaori was tempted to pull her gun and shoot the villainess, but there was no telling what would happen to the men under her influence. It might free them, or it could cause some sort of psychic backlash and send them into comas, if not killing them outright. Or they might go insane and start attacking everything that moved. There was no other way to incapacitate her, not with Kaori's own men shielding the villainess from attack. Kaori had no choice but to stand aside and let the group pass.

Having this high-handed bitch seize control of her men was more than Kaori could bear. Something had to be done and stop super-villains like her, and those holier than thou heroes. Anything. No measure would be too extreme to control them. She vowed that as soon as the current crisis was over, she'd be phoning her Uncle Peter in the United States. He dealt with SPBs all the time on behalf of the government. He'd tell her what to do to bring this scum, human and mutant alike, into line.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Well, I'm finally here." Ukyou Kuonji took a deep breath as she stood at the gates marking off Furinkan High School for the first time.

Outwardly, the school appeared unremarkable; the person who lay inside was what made it special. At long last, the end of Ukyou's lifelong quest was at hand. She trembled. It was almost as thrilling as the first time she donned her Hawkeye costume and realized that becoming a super hero was the right thing to do.

Ukyou walked past the gates and stepped foot on the grounds of the school. As she did, she noticed several students staring at her. It wasn't really surprising. Any new face was guaranteed to set tongues wagging. Her old high school had been no different. She wagered the entire student body would know she had arrived before a single teacher did.

Another tremor of nervousness shook Ukyou, and this time the source wasn't the nearness of her target. It was the outfit she wore. Since her last school was boys only, she had disguised herself as one. It was surprisingly easy, with no one ever catching on to her true gender. Her experience was one of the inspirations for pretending to be a male superhero. No one would ever connect the girl Ukyou Kuonji with the masculine archer. It was a stroke of genius on her part. Who ever heard of a cross-dressing superhero? It simply wasn't done.

And it was for exactly that reason she was now uncomfortable. In order to preserve her secret identity Ukyou Kuonji could never cross dress again. That meant embracing her femininity and attending school wearing the standard girl's uniform. Wearing a dress, any dress, was strange. She fingered her skirt, hating it just as much now as when she had first donned it. Her legs were chilly, and any guy could just look up her skirt and see what color her panties were. Wearing pants or tights, like on her costume, was infinitely preferable to such open air clothing. Likewise, she was forced to wear a bra instead of her standard chest wrap. She still wasn't used to looking down and seeing those bumps of flesh impeding her view. Before, she would wear her chest wrap until she went to bed. Admittedly, letting her breasts free of their tight confinement felt good, and bras were actually pretty comfortable, but it felt awkward. At least she wasn't some top heavy tart, like that Elektra bitch. Having a chest that large would have driven her crazy. As it was, she thought her breasts were shaped just fine. Not too big, and definitely manageable. They were the ideal size. It was just their notable presence that threw her off.

As Ukyou adjusted her bra for the third time today, she realized the movement had caught the eye of many of the students. The girls seemed disapproving, while the guys watched raptly. Apparently girls weren't supposed to do things like that. It was odd. Going to an all guy's school meant one could grab or scratch themselves just about anywhere. No one cared. Guys did it all the time. Why should tugging at her bra through her blouse be any different?

"This femininity stuff sucks," Ukyou mumbled as she entered the school. Once she accomplished her mission, perhaps she would transfer to another all guy's school and not worry about dresses, pantyhose, shaving her legs, or the worst of all, make up. At least she only wore the absolute least amount she could get away with. Sometimes it felt like she was painting a house with all the crap that girls were expected to wear on their face.

Ukyou pushed such thoughts to the back of her mind as she headed for the principal's office to drop off her final set of transfer papers and be assigned her proper class.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"And I'm telling you he was turned to stone!"

"You'd better be right."

"Like I would lie about something like that." There were times when Manabu wondered just how stupid the other members of his gang were. But those instances were few and far between, since he was just as stupid as they were. Not that he was aware of that. Ignorance was its own reward, even if he was too ignorant to realize it.

After recovering in the alley, and waking up beneath a statue that looked exactly like Kobashi, it didn't take long for Manabu to figure out something horrible had happened. When horrible things happened to Manabu, the first thing he would do was have horrible things happen right back to the cause of the problem, usually multiplied several times over. He had every intention of disposing of that attractive foreigner who had messed with his mind and turned his best friend into stone. After he was done using her to slake his lust, of course. He'd do it in the name of Kobashi.

Not that he was foolish enough to confront the woman alone. He could probably take her now, since he was prepared for her tricks, but it was foolish to take pointless chances. That meant getting the rest of the gang together to help him out under the pretence of seeking revenge for their fallen comrade. Unfortunately, no one believed his story. It hadn't helped that he had initially claimed that 'Some woman had gotten Kobashi stoned'. It took Manabu nearly ten minutes to make it clear what being 'stoned' meant. Then the gang switched over to thinking he had been drunk and imagined the whole thing. That meant showing them the proof that the woman had left behind. Besides, they needed to move Kobashi indoors, before the pigeons started bombing him into oblivion. Dead or not, Manabu would save his friend from such an indignity.

Once the gang arrived at the alleyway, Manabu was quick to point out the statute to his fellow gang members. "You see?"

The guys looked skeptically at one another. "How do we know you didn't just have a statue of Kobashi made as some sort of gag?" one asked.

Manabu shot him an irritated stare. "Of course, you're absolutely right. I must have contacted a local stone mason and paid him a huge sum of money to make a life-size statue of Kobashi just to pull a gag on you."

The doubter was chagrined. "Okay, you ran into some kind of mutie who took control of your mind and turned Kobashi to stone. So, how do we take care of her?"

Manabu suddenly realized he hadn't thought that far ahead. Taking on someone with mind control, and who could turn you to stone, without letting them do either one to you? That was a tough one.

Before Manabu suffered the embarrassment of explaining his lack of foresight to his comrades, there was a disturbance at the end of the alley. A vertical whirlpool of black and blue energy suddenly split the very air itself. The impossible vortex acted like it was alive. All twenty member of the gang stood transfixed as it grew in size until it stretched wide enough to touch each wall of the narrow alleyway.

A black gauntleted hand emerged from the coruscating energies, like a man trying to pull free of water. The fingers flexed twice, then curled into a fist. A second hand emerged a moment later, followed by the being the hands belonged to.

The figure was two and a half meters high and almost as wide. It wore thick black and gray armor that covered every inch of its flesh. Despite the armor, it was obvious the figure had an inhumanly powerful physique that no amount of lifting weights could produce. The helmet the figure wore was wide and tall, like a paint can, unadorned save for a pair of red glows that emanated from slits where the figure's eyes should be. The helmet was so wide it sat flush with the shoulders of the armor, making it appear the figure had no neck. Two tiny horns bent upward from the brim of the helmet. Between that and the crimson glows, it gave the figure a demonic appearance.

The instant the figure stepped clear of the vortex, the aperture reversed itself, shrinking back down. Within seconds all that was left was a slender vertical slit, then nothing as it winked out of existence, leaving only the armored figure behind as proof it was ever there.

"I definitely believe you now," the doubter informed Manabu.

The armored figure spoke. "Where is the Enchantress?" Its voice was hollow, with an echoing ring to it.

"You mean that bitch that turned my friend into stone?" Manabu asked, his temper momentarily getting the better of him.

"Mortal scum! Thou wouldst dare say such things about Urd? Thou shalt pay for thy wagging tongue's trespass." The figure raised its armored gauntlet and grabbed the haft of a weapon slung across its back.

The men started to back away, then stopped as the weapon cleared its harness and came into view.

Manabu laughed. "What the hell are you supposed to do with that? Croquet us to death?" The others joined in the laughter.

The armored figure shuddered, though not in fear "I shall show thee what the Executioner can do with such a fantastical weapon of unique design."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

People walking down the street were forced to stop momentarily as the entire block shook violently once, that stopped. When nothing aftershocks followed, most wrote the disturbance off as a minor earthquake, and continued with their lives.

Thirty seconds after the tremor ceased, the Executioner emerged from the alleyway. Alone.

The Executioner pulled a small pad from a pouch on its belt and pushed a button. Instantly a map of the area appeared on the device. Two red dots, one strong, the other faint, appeared on the map. The faint one was stationary, while the stronger light moved in a straight line toward the weaker.

"I am coming for thee, Urd," the figure whispered under its breath as it walked in the direction of the dots.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Ukyou tapped her foot impatiently as she waited for the teacher's signal for her to slide open the door and enter the classroom. Ten long years of vengeance was about to come to a head. She could barely retrain herself. She never had settled on the exact form her righteous revenge would take, so she ran through a hundred different scenarios that fought for supremacy in her dreams. She'd probably go with whatever seemed like a good idea at the time.

Ukyou was in the middle of the one involving rope, a chair, and a feather duster, when she heard the teacher call her name. She banished the fantasy, primped her hair one last time, took a deep, calming breath, and wore her most charming smile as she slid the door open and entered the room.

As she strode to the teacher's side, Ukyou shut out most of the teacher's introduction and let her eyes pore over the seated students. Now that she was about to have her vengeance, a hole appeared in her plan. She hadn't seen Ranma in ten years. How much had he changed? Was he short or tall? Had he put on weight, or was he skinny? Was he bishonen or built like a fireplug? Would she even recognize him if he didn't recoil in fear at the very sight of her? She couldn't begin her campaign with a "Are you Ranma Saotome?" What sort of person could claim they were on a righteous crusade if they didn't even recognize their intended target?

Ukyou caught on to the teacher saying something about bowing just in time. Ukyou did so watching the students intently, praying someone would react when her name was said out loud.

"I'm Ukyou Kuonji." She rose from her bow, waiting for the expected reaction.

One of the students shot up from his seat. "I know you!"

Ukyou's eyes locked on the figure. Wow! Ranma had changed. He looked nothing like she remembered. His impish little self and become very plain, so much so that he would blend in with any crowd. Had he not said something, she probably wouldn't have noticed he existed.

The boy continued. "Yeah, we met at what-his-name's party. We talked a little bit near the pool. I had to leave in a hurry, but never did get your name and number. How about giving it now?"

"Huh?" Was all Ukyou could get out.

A boy next to him said, "Sit down, Daisuke. You always try to use that pick up line on new girls and it never works."

"At least he didn't ask for her measurements this time," a girl toward the front grumbled.

Another boy shot up from his seat and shouted, "It is you, Hawkeye! How're you doing?"

Ukyou's eyes fixed on that speaker, then widened as she took him in. While there was no question that face was her Ranchan's, he had grown up in every sense of the word. While he had been tall for his age when they were children, he had taken on truly large proportions now. He was by far the tallest boy in the class, and maybe in the school. His wide torso indicated he underwent a rigorous training regimen to stay fit. Even from across the room, Ukyou could sense the hidden strength under his school uniform. It reminded her of Captain Japan, except she knew this guy was a total jerk while the Captain was an icon of manhood that any woman would be lucky to land. A faint blush rose to her cheeks as she envisioned her hunky teammate.

Ukyou shook her head clear of the fantasy, making it stillborn before it could divert her attention from her true goal. Here he was, the boy who had ruined her life, and he had the audacity to ask her how she was doing. Well, she'd let him know, right after she put an arrow in him. In a non-vital area, of course, She'd just give him a mark to remind him for the rest of his life the price of ruining a young girl's life, one whose only crime was to fall for a first class jerk.

She was about to shout out all of Ranma's crimes when a girl from the front said, "Hawkeye? You mean the super hero?" The girl stared at Ukyou suspiciously.

Ukyou froze. She hadn't counted on Ranma using her childhood nickname, not after all he had done to her, but he surprised her by blurting it out loud to everyone. It wouldn't have been so bad except for the fact she was Hawkeye, and if it ever became publicly known, she'd be the target for every supervillain trying to make a name for himself. She'd never have a moment's peace.

The class began talking as one.

"Yeah, that's the one. I think he controls hawks."

"No, it's not hawks. He uses boomerangs with gadgets in them."

"No, it's an energy sword."

"It's trick arrows," a girl with short hair seated next to Ranma said confidently.

"No, I'm pretty sure he controls hawks," the first person said.

The first girl that spoke looked at Ukyou in awe. "So you're a super hero."

Ukyou panicked. She had to think fast before these idiots blew her identity, and for all the wrong reasons. "I can't be Hawkeye. Hawkeye's a guy, and I am obviously." She twirled her skirt. "A girl."

"Why don't you prove it by giving us your measurements?" Daisuke suggested.

A girl seated in arm's reach swatted him in the head.

Ranma made his presence known again. "Well, you did use to be really good with arrows, Hawkeye."

Ukyou gulped. Ranma was acting way too casual, and getting her into trouble without even knowing it. She giggled girlishly and tried to sound flighty. "Don't be silly. You're misremembering. I was a terrible shot and haven't touched a bow since I was kid."

Ranma scratched his head. "No, I could have sworn you were really good with it, which was why I called you Hawkeye." But then he laughed it off. "You can't be the superhero Hawkeye, though, since he's a guy and you aren't."

"That's right," Ukyou breathed a sigh of relief at her salvation, then realized what she was doing. She held nothing but hatred for Ranma, and he had the audacity to make her feel gratitude toward him. She had to take care of her revenge right this instant.

Ukyou renewed her hostile glare. "And as for you, Ranchan, how dare you act so casually with me."

Ranma stared at her in confusion. "Why wouldn't I act casual with you? We were childhood friends."

"Friends! Friends! Friends! Her decibel level rose with each shriek until it threatened to break glass. Ukyou stopped ranting and stalked toward him instead, intent on giving him a piece of her mind before moving on to more physical forms of revenge.

She drew up next to him and shouted, "How dare you pretend that nothing happened! How could you be so heartless and act like I wouldn't care that the guy I was supposed to marry ran off and abandoned me!"

The whole room gasped, including Ranma, who just stared at Ukyou in befuddlement.

While Ukyou caught her breath, she waited for Ranma to respond. She'd give him a chance to make some pathetic excuse before mopping the floor with him.

Surprisingly, it wasn't Ranma, but the girl seated next to him that responded first. She placed a hand on her desk and rose to her feet. "Excuse me, but this sounds a bit confusing. I don't think Ranma is the sort of guy to jilt someone like that. According to his father, it was arranged that he was supposed to marry someone from my, I mean, one of my two sisters, shortly after he was born. I don't see how he could have been engaged to you. And didn't he say you haven't seen each other since you were kids? Maybe there's a reasonable explanation for all of this." She placed a hand on Ukyou's shoulder.

Already enraged, and not wanting to hear this piece of human scum defended by some other girl he had duped, Ukyou snapped, "What do you know about it?" She swatted the girl's hand aside and shoved her slightly.

It was a light push, intended only to move the girl back down in her seat. However, in a display of complete lack of coordination, the girl collapsed against the chair, hitting her back against it before landing hard on the floor.

The results were instantaneous as a second collective gasp filled the room.

"Oh my god, did you see what she did to Akane?"

"What a jerk. I can't believe some loudmouth would do that to her."

"At first, I felt a little sorry for Kuonji, but if that's the way she treats people, I'm not surprised Ranma left her."

"I don't even want her measurements anymore," Daisuke said.

Ukyou was taken aback by the universal looks of anger shot toward her. It was only a simple fall, one Ukyou hadn't even intended. While she could understand some disapproval from the class, the irate glares she shot her way made it seem like she had strangled a rabbit before their eyes. She was missing some vital piece of information.

Even Ranma's look of confusion had changed to anger. He said to Ukyou, "I don't know what's happened to you over the last ten years, but the Ukyou Kuonji I know would never pick on someone with a handicap."

Handicap? Ukyou took a closer look at the girl. Right next to her was a gnarled wooden stick that was obviously some sort of cane. A couple of other students helped the fallen girl to her feet, and Ukyou could see she placed most of her weight on one leg.

It was the worst. You couldn't toss handicapped people around. There was no way to put a positive spin on what she had done, especially since it was unthinking on her part. The girl had only been trying to make peace, and Ukyou had all but attacked her. If she didn't do something fast, her reputation was going to be ruined for the rest of her high school life.

Nothing came to mind, and judging by the increasingly hostile glares, it appeared the class wanted to take turns shoving Ukyou down a flight of stairs. She was wondering if she should try to explain her actions, or accept the punishment, when she was saved by a cry of, "What the heck is that!"

Everyone turned to look toward the speaker, who had risen from his chair to stare out the window.

Ukyou was quick to take advantage of the opening. "Oh, look, something important is happening outside. Why doesn't everyone go to the window and see what it is?" She walked over to the window, praying it was something on the level of an alien invasion. Anything to distract the class from what had just happened.

She was close. Even Ukyou was taken aback by the sight of a mob of over fifty men filling the courtyard below. Several well built men carried a bed with a woman on it. She was dressed in a very curious (and slutty) outfit, lounging around as though she were the Empress of Japan.

The woman looked up at the window intently, as though she saw something. She waved toward the class and said, "Yoo hoo, Snookem's, thy little Enchantress hath arrived. I do not know what the trouble is, since I can barely sense your presence, but I am eager to see thee after so long. Why dost thou not come down and play?" She patted the bed.

"Come down and play," the guys in the room said, beatific expressions on all of their faces. As one they turned away from the window and headed toward the door. Within seconds the room was devoid of anything containing a Y chromosome.

"Where the heck do they think they're going?" one of the girls protested.

Another girl said, "Obviously those guys are so enslaved by their hormones that all it takes is some over the hill hag to wiggle her ass at them and they come running."

Ukyou shook her head. "I don't think so. They all had glazed looks in their eyes, like they were hypnotized."

"They were enchanted." That came from the girl who Ukyou had shoved. Now she was sitting on the floor, ducking low as though she was terrified of even looking at the woman on the bed. "That's one of her specialties, enslaving men with her sorcery."

"How do you know that?" Ukyou asked.

The girl jerked, as though she had been slapped. Slowly she said, "Because she said her name is the Enchantress. So I just figured she enchants things. And since she was only surrounded by guys, and none of us girls were affected, I assumed that's what she does."

"That makes sense." Ukyou's hand curled into a fist. "I'm going to have to—" She paused. She was about to say she was going down there to kick the Enchantress' aging backside. She might as well admit she was Hawkeye while she was at it. Instead she said, "I'm going to find somewhere safe to hide, since there's no way a normal girl like me can take on some supervillain." Accepting the damage to her reputation in the name of preserving her secret identity, Ukyou ran away, hoping to find a quiet spot to change into her alter ego. While she started her search, she hit the emergency beacon on her Avengers ID card. The team would be alerted to the danger and be able to home in on her position. While she hoped she could take out the bimbo without any help, she wasn't taking any chances. Better to have too much firepower on a false alarm, like their confrontation with Leap Frog (whose sole power was bouncing around on a pair of springs in his frog costume), than too little on a world-beater of the Mandarin's level.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

At Kunou Industries, Kodachi Kunou cursed as the Avengers' emergency signal went off. Her armor still wasn't completed yet, the trimming down taking much longer than she originally thought. She knew she would be satisfied with the final product. With improvements to the technology, she would only be sacrificing a little strength and protection for a great deal more speed and quickness. And she was taking the opportunity to install a host of newer, more powerful weapons that would only make her more dangerous. The Hulk wouldn't be calling her a stove person anymore. Now she would actually look like a woman in armor, instead of a walking tin can.

Soon, the Iron Rose would soar again, just not today. Probably the coming Friday by the latest.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Kasumi Tendou had just entered the bathroom when the Avengers' ID card she had left in her bedroom went off. Given that even Akane and Nabiki complained about how long it took their eldest sister to bathe, she wouldn't be able to help until after the situation had been resolved.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Dr. Tofu winced when he felt the ID card vibrate in his pocket. Once again he would be dragged into risking his life in a manner that held no appeal for him. Being a superhero was one of the last things in the world he wanted. He was quite happy helping mankind in his role as a doctor. Risking life and limb to beat up people (the majority of whom needing therapy and not violence to help them) gave him migraines. He'd drop the whole ridiculous 'Giant Man' thing if it wasn't for Kasumi. If anything happened to her while he stood idly by, he'd never forgive himself. He just hoped she'd grow out of this superhero phase so they could return to their normal lives.

He decided to wait until Kasumi appeared before changing into his outfit. Who knew, maybe she was tiring of her role as the Wasp even now, and he could continue seeing patients until the proper end of business hours.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Mousse stopped 'reading' the Braille law books he was perusing for an upcoming test and temporarily turned off the audio signal on his card. He wasn't wild about this whole Avengers thing. He didn't care much for the company of others and certainly didn't need them, regardless of what that old ghoul, Stick might think. But he was committed to helping others, and serving as an Avenger met that goal in ways that swinging from building to building could never do.

Rather than moving, he sat and pondered the matter.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

Ranma was too busy being enchanted to answer the call, though he was on the scene, just not in the role that Hawkeye had hoped for.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The Hulk was too busy fighting Spragg, the Living Hill a member of an alien race whose forms were identical large mounds of dirtpreventing the large knoll from spearheading an invasion of Earth. He had no time to answer a second call to battle.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Akane turned off her ID card a second after it went off. They'd have to take care of whatever problem it was on their own. She had something more important to do.

Akane watched the strange girl go. Hawkeye she definitely wasn't. What an inappropriate nickname she had as a child. Akane would really have to grill Ranma on what the deal with that Kuonji character was. While Akane was aware the new girl hadn't meant to shove her to the floor, it didn't speak well of her that she would be so casually violent with strangers. She did seem stressed out, but that wasn't really an excuse for her unthinking behavior.

Of greater concern was this claim of being Ranma's fiancée. If there was any truth to it, that would be bad. How could Akane dispose of… that was help match up the perfect couple of Kasumi and Ranma? It was obvious they were made for each other, unlike the horrible idea of Dr. Tofu and Kasumi dating. If it turned out Ranma was engaged to another girl, things could become problematic fast.

But that was for later. Akane's full attention needed to be focused on the platinum-haired Asgardian camped out in the middle of the school yard. Akane recognized her immediately as Urd, the Enchantress, a self-centered, vain goddess who had tried to catch a certain god of thunder's interest on many occasions. While she was extremely attractive, and certainly not straight-laced, fooling around with her was too much like telling a dwarf to his face that he was a sawed-off smelly midget that couldn't tell lead from silver. That was why Thor had never accepted any of Urd's offers. Of course, like many vain women, that he would spurn her advances only made her want him all the more. Some of the schemes she had come up with were tempting, and he had considered bedding her on more than one occasion, but…

"I don't like girls!" Akane shouted.

"No one said you did," Yuka, who was at Akane's right, told her.

Sayuri, who was to Akane's left, said, "Yeah, though I wonder if her power extends to lesbians."

"That would be cool. It could out a lot of girls," Yuka said. "See if Miko Miahara shows up down there. I always thought she was a little too butch to be straight."

Akane shut out the girls' banter. This was an extraordinarily bad situation. Urd's arrival was no coincidence. She was here for Akane, or specifically, Thor. Despite Akane not being in her alternate form, Urd was somehow able to sense her presence. Perhaps the walking stick was radiating magic. Since getting rid of the source of Akane's power was not an option that meant changing into Thor and confronting the goddess before she 'outed' Akane for something a whole lot worse than lesbianism. Not that she was a lesbian, no matter how confused her memories seemed to get when she was Thor.

Akane started to quietly back away when Sayuri noticed her movement. She said, "Don't worry about things. Yuka and I will protect you no matter what happens."

"Yeah, we'll stick by your side no matter what until things blow over," Yuka seconded.

Akane laughed nervously. How ironic that their attempts to help would only serve to hinder. What was it about life that she kept ending up in situations where she felt like crying?

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Urd found herself surrounded by over a hundred admirers now, though none of them was the man she sought. It was vexing. While she had been able to home on Thor's unique Asgardian energies from afar, now that she was in his general area, she found it impossible to focus on his precise location. It was almost as though his godly essence was being masked.

Unable to transport directly to his side, Urd settled on creating a disturbance that was certain to draw his attention. Curiously, he still had not made an appearance. Surely he would come to her. He had to be lonely, trapped as he was in this world of lowly mortals. It wasn't like any other Asgardians would dare defy the All-Father's Imperial Edict. He had to come, for curiosity's sake if nothing else.

Now that Urd thought about it, perhaps it would be best to use the extra time to prepare a proper greeting. It would be wise to add a little something to make him receptive to the idea of his being permitted to share her bed. He had been resistant in decades past, but this time would be different. Her beauty far exceeded that of the lowly mortals, and she was not just the most beautiful Asgardian ever, but the only one around.

While the enchantment she had woven around herself might draw mortals to her like moths to a flame, Thor would mostly likely be immune to such lowly magics. To help improve the outcome, Urd pulled out a green jar seemingly from out of thin air. It was a minor spell involving extra-dimensional spaces, one where she kept her most useful items. She used her magic to remove the arcane seals that would disintegrate anyone that tried to open it. Removing the top, she looked down at the small amount of red cream that lined the bottom of the jar. It had taken two decades to track down the rare ingredients that composed the magical concoction. It took another year to weave the proper enchantments to make it work. but it had been worth the sacrifice. The mixture was so powerful that no man but Odin himself would be able to resist its effects. One kiss, and Thor would be hers for the next thousand years.

Urd was careful as she rubbed the substance on her lips. There was only enough for one application, so she had to be certain to use it under the right conditions. There would be no second chances.

She had just finished applying the magical make-up when she spotted a newcomer standing about fifteen meters away from her gathering. The man was an odd sort, dressed in a purple costume and a mask that hid his features. She did recognize what was obviously a bow in his hand and quiver of arrows on his back.

Urd said, "Thy weaponry and stance indicate thou art a warrior of some prowess. By all means, come to the Enchantress' side and swear fealty." She pointed to a spot where he could kneel before her.

"I don't think so," Hawkeye scoffed. She nocked an arrow and aimed it at the Enchantress. "I'm only going to tell you once, release all of these guys from whatever hold you have on them and give up. And don't make any sudden moves. Aside from making me nervous, you're liable to fall out of that top."

Urd remained motionless, though not because Hawkeye had ordered her to. She was stunned at the idea that the mortal could resist her magically enhanced charms. She could not sense any magic coming from him, and he was far too small to be Thor in disguise. How vexing. She would have to subdue the archer and find out exactly why he was immune to her spell. She waved her hand before her.

Hawkeye suddenly found his arrow, twisting in his hand, having been turned into a snake. "Not again," she moaned. It appeared this woman had the same tricks that weirdo with the funny eyes did. Luckily, Hawkeye knew it was only an illusion. Summoning all of her will, she envisioned she was holding only an arrow, and not a slimy reptile writhing in her hands. Refusing to let go of the serpent's tail, she pulled back and let the snake fly to the target she had originally intended.

The snake flew true, landing at the far end of the bed and detonating on upon impact. The low yield explosive had almost no blast radius. No one suffered more than a few splinters, though the bed was destroyed. The men holding it reflexively let go so they could protect their faces, sending Urd spilling to the ground, landing bottom first on the grass below.

Urd recovered quickly from her surprise. She looked at the men and pointed in Hawkeye's direction. "Subdue him!"

As one students, body builders, and policemen all rushed at the target of the Enchantress' ire.

Hawkeye gulped. She really hadn't planned on fending off all of them. Lighting fast she started releasing her arrows. Flare, glue, sonic, bolo, and a variety of other non-lethal types spread into the midst of the angry mob. Hawkeye was delighted to see Ranma was among those blinded by the first flare arrow. He was left covering his eyes and flailing blindly about until his vision returned.

After Hawkeye downed nearly half their number, she suddenly realized she was out of anything that could disable a number of her attackers without risking serious injury to them. She had to find a defensible position, somewhere they could only come at her in ones or twos.

The archer saw what she needed in the highest tree in the courtyard, the tree standing only a handful of meters to her left. Right before the mob was upon her, she shot a cable arrow into the highest branch that could support her weight. The miniaturized motor pulled her up faster than she could possible manage on her own, taking her up to the branch and to the relative safety of the tree. The best her foes could manage now was to climb the tree, where she could fend them off with her hand-to-hand skills, or alternately club them in the head with her bow, should she run out of arrows.

Hawkeye had just notched a couple of blunt tips when she noticed the Enchantress make a waving gesture in her direction. Now that she had a clear shot, it occurred to her that removing the head of the snake might cause the body to fall apart. Hawkeye aimed at the villainess.

Before she could release her arrow, two other tree branches swung impossibly in the archer's direction. The limbs wrapped themselves around her, pinning her arms to her sides. Thor or the Hulk could shatter the branches by shrugging, Giant Man and the Wasp could change their sizes to escape such bonds, but unable to get to any of her arrows, Hawkeye was totally helpless and at the mercy of the Enchantress. She was left squirming in her bonds, thinking it the second-worst day of her life. Not only had she failed to achieve vengeance against Ranma, but she had the added indignity of losing to a trampy-looking villain.

Xxxxxxxxxx

The Enchantress smirked at her handiwork. The archer was an impressive warrior, especially with the strange arrows he used. He had single-handedly disabled half her followers. She'd have to double her persuasion enchantment to properly ensorcel him.

"Seize him!" she ordered her followers once again.

Several of them began climbing up the tree when a red blur landed in their midst. Even Urd's eyes were hard pressed to follow the blur as a half-dozen men fell to the ground in the span of a couple of seconds. She only caught a glance at the figure as another half-dozen of her men charged into the fray. They too joined their comrades on the ground.

Now there was a space around the figure and Urd got her first look at him. He wore a loose red robe with voluminous sleeves and a demon's mask with two tiny horns at the brow over his face. A pair of overlapping letter 'D's were on his chest. Currently his hands were tucked into his sleeves, making it appear as though he had only one semi-circular arm.

Urd reached out with her senses and but could feel no demonic energy from the being. That was good. She didn't like demons. Satana Satanadana (Urd still wondered how that could be pronounced 'Mara') was trouble enough when their paths crossed. She had no desire to have dealings with other demons if she could help it. No, this strangely-garbed warrior held the scent of decay that all mortals possessed. The smell didn't foul her senses; it simply tipped her off to the fact this being would die in an eye-blink of time, by her reckoning.

Another oddly dressed mortal, and an impressive fighter as well. She would test his mettle to see how he might serve her. "Defeat him," she ordered her minions.

As a mass, they rushed him. The stranger leapt over the heads of the crowd, a huge net flowing out from his sleeves and landing on his foes. It expanded to encompass the entire horde. The more they struggled, the tighter the net bound them. Had they moved with any coordination, they could have removed the net, but the Enchantress' spell made them incapable of obeying anyone other than her.

There was one man that evaded the net. Urd marked him as an exceptionally large youth, passingly handsome. He was the type that might entertain her in a bed, with a few years of proper training. He moved like a lion, as evidenced by his evasion of the net when all others had failed. It appeared remarkable mortals were homing in on the most remarkable of Asgardians. She decided to sit back and watch the fight.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Daredevil noted he managed to dispatch all but one of the remaining horde. While Hawkeye had done his work well, at least judging by the number of unconscious and reeling people surrounding the area, the archer had been caught, and he was free. That was the difference that made him better than Hawkeye. Daredevil felt a sense of pride that he was better than so many of his fellow Avengers. One of these days he'd prove it to the annoying egotist, Captain Japan.

The hero's radar sense informed him that one of the possessed mob had evaded the nets. Daredevil felt sorry for the poor guy. He was completely outclassed. The blind adventurer decided to go easy on him. After all, it wasn't as though the guy could be blamed for falling victim to some supervillain who had the ability to capture a person's mind. Luckily, Daredevil knew he was made of sterner stuff. No one could control his mind, no matter what their powers were.

Just as the figure was nearly upon him, Daredevil finally managed to sort out his foe's heartbeat from the others. The hero's defenses momentarily went down as he recognized the familiar pulse of Captain Japan's.

A hard right struck cleanly, nearly breaking Daredevil's jaw and sending his senses reeling. A kick to the gut knocked the wind out of him and sent him flat to the ground. It was more reflex than design that enabled the hero to roll out of the way of the foot aimed at his stomach, one that might have ended the fight if it had landed. He continued rolling as second and third stomps barely missed him.

Having recovered some small amount of his wind, Daredevil retaliated in the brief opening that was provided as Captain Japan raised his foot again. The blind man lashed out with his leg, kicking the one his possessed teammate still had planted on the ground out from under him.

They were near mirror images of one another as each returned to his feet and backed away. Captain Japan attacked with a mad flurry of punches. It was then Daredevil noticed something odd about the Captain's fighting style. He was off by a small margin, and moving just a touch slower than normal. It was barely noticeable, but the difference between the two fighters suddenly widened. Daredevil waited for an opening, then launched a counter attack with several boxing maneuvers. He tagged the Captain twice with quick jabs. Neither blow was enough to level his foe, but now Daredevil knew for certain that whatever was affecting Captain Japan's mind was also affecting his fighting style. It would be a war of attrition, but Daredevil knew he would win, especially since his ally's shield was missing.

Daredevil began wearing down his foe with a methodical attack that systematically destroyed Captain Japan's defenses. Instead of feeling elation at kicking his nominal rival's butt, the blind adventurer felt empty and hollow. Defeating the Captain under these conditions was pointless. It didn't prove anything other than he made a poor puppet. Daredevil wanted the satisfaction of defeating Captain Japan on a level playing field, and proving he was both the superior fighter and man.

It was time. Daredevil decided to finish things off with a powerful nerve strike to the shoulder followed up by a blow to the head. Then he'd deal with the woman who was responsible for the blind adventurer's meaningless victory. She was the one he was truly angry at for confounding one of his dearest wishes.

Just as Daredevil was about to land the blow, someone came at him from behind. An ordinary man would have never fallen victim to the ambush. With his radar sense, Daredevil could see equally in every direction all the time. He brought his elbow back, hitting the attacker in the face and knocking him out in one blow. It was one of the entranced policemen, judging by the smell of the uniform and the silhouette of the gun and nightstick in his belt.

Dealing with the newcomer's attack proved costly as Captain Japan landed a hard fist into Daredevil's chest. He winced as he felt his sternum nearly crack under the force of the blow. He deflected the next two strikes, but then became aware of two others charging at him from opposite sides. Daredevil backed away, allowing their uncoordinated attack to backfire as the men slammed into each other. However, just as they fell to the ground, Captain Japan attacked again, his fist coming through just as the two men separated enough to allow him to throw a punch. The blow hit Daredevil's jaw once again, loosening it for certain.

Where were these men coming from? Daredevil paid closer attention to where the net lay. While they had not functioned as a group, there was strength in numbers and, more by happenstance than design, those closest to the edge were free. Worse, with an opening in the netting, others were quickly following suit. While Daredevil could have dealt with either the slow trickle of normal people or Captain Japan alone, combined they would overwhelm him in a matter of minutes.

Since retreating was not an option, there was only recourse left, at least one that would incapacitate rather than injure. He had to act quickly before it was too late. From his sleeves the hero hurled numerous canisters in both the direction of the mob and at his feet. They exploded on impact, releasing jets of a smoky substance far and wide in the air. The effect was instantiations as everyone began rubbing their eyes at the tear gas. Everyone, that was, save Daredevil. While his eyes watered like everyone else, such meant little to a blind man.

Taking advantage of the situation, he whipped out a pair of billy clubs, one for each hand. He turned to the now blinded Captain Japan. Raising his arms up, he brought the clubs down on the possessed man's shoulders, eliciting a cry of pain. A kick to the stomach doubled him over. Daredevil finished up with a sharp blow to the back of his unprotected neck. Captain Japan slumped to the ground, groaning in the throes of unconsciousness.

A cheaper victory Daredevil couldn't imagine. While he could taunt Captain Japan for falling under the influence of the villainess, and both he and Hawkeye could boast about their immunity to the woman, he couldn't coo about the physical victory. Daredevil had his pride. He would prove his superiority to everyone in a battle where none could question the outcome.

A sudden breeze kicked up around the area, blowing the tear gas away. Daredevil's senses perceived the approach of the villainess who was no longer content to merely watch from the sidelines. Now here was a victory the blind adventurer could brag about, single-handedly dispatching their foe and demonstrating to everyone that he didn't need a team to succeed in the superhero business.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

After conjuring a minor wind to blow away the haze, the Enchantress turned a bemused smile upon the warrior. Truly he was impressive, having dispatched both her remaining minions as well as the tall youth. He would be a wonderful addition to her servants. Since he had managed to resist her glamour, like the archer before him, Urd boosted the power of her allure a threefold with a wave of her hand. Now he could not help falling for her.

The Enchantress stood before the man and turned her most sultry gaze upon him. His expression was unreadable behind his mask, but she knew it could be nothing but the most slavish of devotion. "Gaze upon the face of your new mistress and show how much you wish to serve her."

In response, Daredevil drew back his fist and punched her in the face.

To a normal woman of Urd's proportions, the blow would have rendered her stunned, if not unconscious. To an Asgardian in the fit shape she was in, it simply turned her head. Her shock was total as she remained looking away, saying softly, "Thou didst strike mine face."

Daredevil cried out in pain at the unexpected resistance and held his now sore hand tenderly. "What are you made of, concrete!"

"Thou didst strike mine face," Urd repeated more loudly.

Thanks to his blindness, Daredevil was spared the sight of the Enchantress' face as it contorted from unearthly seduction to a naked fury that no mortal could hope to match. Even her slaves backed away in fear from her.

Daredevil could tell something was amiss as a sensation similar to the effect of electricity built up in the air and started to surround him. With his uninjured hand he whipped out another billy club and drew back with it, intending to deliver a much harder blow, something that would ring even Thor's ears.

He was too late as with a wave of her hand, the Enchantress hurled a mystic bolt of energy into him. The energy simultaneously fired off most of his pain synapses, as well as hurling him nearly halfway across the schoolyard where his body slumped to the ground, unmoving.

The ferocious look of hate grew even greater. "Thou has committed the most grievous of crimes in attempting to mar mine perfect features. For this unforgivable transgression, thou hast earned the most painful of punishments." Urd raised her hands wide apart above her head. Between the hands an oval of purest darkness formed. Its obsidian depths seemed to suck in not just light, but bleached the color from everything. It grew larger with every second, as though the Asgardian's anger fed it, and Urd had no shortage of anger for her foe. "Behold, the most powerful of spells, 'Oblivion's Embrace'. It shall not only end thy life, but it shall eradicate everything, even thy soul. There will be naught left to stride either the halls of Valhalla or Hel."

Just as she was about to unleash the spell, powerful hands grasped her wrists and a voice commanded, "Enow."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Thor looked down at Urd, relieved she had prevented the fiery tempered goddess from eradicating Daredevil. In truth, her comrade had saved himself with the tear gas. When Urd had blown the cloud away with her magic winds, it had been forced into the school, blinded Yuka and Sayuri. That was all Akane needed to limp away. Once as safe distance away, she struck her cane against the floor. Transformed, she flew out, her godly form immune to the gas, and confronted Urd just in time to prevent Daredevil's eradication.

Urd spun in Thor's grasp, her look of rage disappearing as instantly as it arrived, transforming into delight. "At last, I hath found thee, oh most handsome of gods"

Thor was unmoved by the flattery. "Thou hast gone too far. Thou doth know the spell of Oblivion is only the All Father's to employ. It is forbidden for any others to call upon it."

"Had I a care for the blow-hard's edicts, I would not be here, now would I?" Urd scoffed as the spell winked out of existence, obliterating itself. "Tis most wonderful to see thee again after so long, mine Prince."

"Would that I could say the same," Thor said.

Before he could speak further, Urd stood on her tip-toes and grabbed Thor by the head, bending his face downward. She kissed him with all the passion she could muster, her lips drinking deeply of his.

For a moment, Thor found herself lost in the power of the kiss. Truly it was incredible, tantalizing her senses in ways she could never recall, and served well for one who often referred to herself as the Goddess of Love and Beauty. And the way her lush, voluptuous form ground itself against hers, Urd's breasts pressing against Thor's own—"

Thor roughly shoved Urd away. "I am not a pervert!" It was as much an entreaty as a statement.

"Be not so prudish. It hardly becomes you. Thy lascivious nature is one reason I have sought thee out," Urd told her. "Now thou art bound to love me for all eternity. Hahahaha—"

"Cease thy foolish ranting, Urd."

The Enchantress' laughter died. "Eh? Thou should not speak to the love of thy life in such terms, Dearest."

"Thou are not now nor ever hath been mine love. I have no interest in such as thee or thy gender," Thor assured her.

Urd backed away, horrified. "Tis beyond belief. Not only hath the cream of enchantment failed to bind thee, but no less than two mortals have resisted mine allure as well." Once more she accessed her extra-dimensional space, this time whipping out an elaborate hand mirror. It was made of the purest adamantine and crafted so perfectly that the roses lining the frame seemed real. Only a god could be responsible for its creation.

The Enchantress looked into the mirror's surface. "Magic Mirror, I command thee to speak. Have I lost mine beauty?"

The face of a handsome man with blond hair and eyes of the deepest blue appeared on the surface. It proclaimed, "Honey, I'd like to strip you naked, smear you in honey, and lick—"

"Enow." Urd silenced the mirror and replaced it in the hole. "Thor, surely thou dost not find my form repellent."

"Thy beauty is surpassed only by thy vanity," Thor informed her with a touch of jealousy.

"Then how can thee resist mine… hold, weren't thou taller in times past?" Urd looked the 'God' of Thunder over for the first time. Her brows arched in curiosity as her eyes settled on Thor's chest. She held out her arm and touched the chest in question, feeling the unexpected lumps carefully.

"Woulds't thou not do that?" Thor grumbled.

Rather than stopping, Urd began fondling the lumps. Eventually she centered on the most rounded parts, pinching slightly and confirming her suspicions.

Thor swatted the appendages away using a blow that would have broken the bones of a non-Asgardian. "Stop that now!"

The Enchantress finally obeyed Thor's wishes. "So, thou hast encountered transgender magic. Uncommon sorcery, but not unheard of. Tis usually most tricky, though given time I believe I can overcome it. Unless thou wishes to remain that way." Urd moved closer to Thor, snuggling against her. "While mine preference is for company of a male nature, I have dabbled upon occasion with members of mine own gender. Some quite talented. Things can get boring over millennia, and a change of pace ofttimes serves to whet the appetite as well as distract."

Thor pulled away, thoroughly scandalized. Before she could utter epithets of Urd's perversions, a section of the wall surrounding the school exploded, producing a huge cloud of debris and dust. Relieved at what was undoubtedly a clarion call to battle, Thor turned her attention to the cause of the disturbance.

Striding through the dust, the armored figure of the Executioner approached. Upon seeing Thor, it raised its hammer, which was extremely slender and bore a strong resemblance to a croquet mallet.

"Skuld!" Thor exclaimed. Upon seeing the figure, previously forgotten memories of the identity of the armored warrior surged to the forefront.

The Executioner leveled the hammer in Thor's direction. "So, I see mine fears were well founded. Thou has conspired to take mine elder sister from Asgard and make her yours."

The accusation made Thor stare at her fellow Asgardian in disbelief. "Surely thou art joking."

"I would never joke when it comes to mine sibling!" the Executioner's hollow, metallic voice bellowed. "And refer to me by my proper title: The Executioner."

Thor's eyes narrowed. "Thou still goes by that ridiculous title? Skuld, there be no such position in all of Asgard. The All-Father doth not execute anyone. He satisfies justice by exiling criminals to distant, malicious lands." That probably wasn't the best of recourses, since some exiles not only survived those harsh realms, but they would found their own kingdoms in those places of exile, and then raised armies to seek revenge on Asgard. While Asgard always won, there was usually a feeling of irritation when some criminal turned their punishment to their advantage.

"I have decided I am the Realm Eternal's Executioner and that's that!" The figure strode forward, hammer held menacingly before it.

The Enchantress was about to calm her sibling down and explain what was really happening, then changed her mind. She was curious to see how the transformed Thor would perform in combat, and her sibling's overprotectiveness could be trying at times. Besides, Urd rather enjoyed being fought over. The right to have beauty such as hers at one's side should always be a prize worth fighting for.

Realizing that further words would settle nothing, Thor approached her foe as well, intent on meeting Skuld head on. It would be best to end the fight quickly, for Skuld's sake as well as the innocent bystanders in the school.

The moment they drew within range of one other the pair silently drew back their hammers and swung them forward. The weapons met head on, filling the air with the sound of a ton of explosives going off. The impact was incredible as a wave of force radiated outward from ground zero. It traveled across the school, shattering all the windows on one side and knocking all in the school yard off their feet.

"Od's Blood!" Thor exclaimed as she backed away from her foe.

The Executioner didn't seem surprised in the slightest. "Foolish Thunder God, I have improved mine hammer much since our last encounter. No cheap victory shall thou attain this time. Rather, at long last the name of Skuld shall be on everyone's lips as the greatest of gods, while the Thunder's name will be quickly forgotten, like some god I cannot name, since they be forgotten."

"Mine name is legend, and shall be until the end of days," Thor promised.

"Not when I am through with thee." The Executioner pointed the hammer at Thor. "Observe one of the other improvements to my Mjolnir 3005." The head of the hammer began to spin around in one spot, like a propeller, while the handle Skuld gripped remained stationary.

The head spun faster and faster, causing a wind to kick up. Suddenly, an opening appeared directly in front of the head, as though the winds had made a rip in reality. "Thou are not the only one capable of creating fissures in the space time continuum. Observe this dimension of ice and storms!" Pieces of hail the size of basketballs began shooting out of the aperture, heading directly for Thor.

The Goddess of Thunder reacted almost instantaneously as she began whirling her hammer by its thong. Savage winds kicked up as cyclonic forces originated at her hammer. The power of the wind was so great that the pieces of hail slowed down, stopped, then reversed direction, heading back to their point of origin.

Several impacted on the Executioner's armor, staggering the warrior. Instantly the hammer's head stopped spinning and the volley of hail ceased as the hole in reality closed up.

"Now thou shall know the power of the storm!" Thor knelt on one knee and tapped the end of her hammer into the ground. A bolt of lightning arced down from the heavens and struck the Executioner on the top of the metal helmet.

Smoke rose from the Executioner's still form. Thor rose to her feet, a look of satisfaction in place. "And now this match hath ended."

The Executioner laughed. "Dost thou believe me so weak that a mere spark could render me senseless? Mine armor is made of a non-conductive material, a simple counter to such a simple attack. Thy arrogance truly knows no bounds." The Executioner ran forward, closing the space between the gods in a heartbeat.

Thor, surprised at her attack having failed so thoroughly, fell victim to a fist from the Executioner. The blow stuck solidly and sent Thor flying through the air. She impacted with a wall of the school and bounced off, cracking the concrete behind her.

Seeing the successful handiwork, the Executioner laughed. "Mine power lies not solely in mine hammer, as thou has just borne witness. Sing my praises, Thor, and I shall be merciful."

Thor glared daggers of anger at her foe. "Sooner would I tie bloody meat to my person and try to pet the Fenris Wolf than admit defeat to the likes of you."

"I shall slaughter the cow myself," the Executioner boasted as the armored warrior drew back the croquet-shaped hammer and let it fly. Miniature jets burst from the handle as it sped unerringly toward the God of Thunder.

Thor drew back her hammer, intent on swatting the weapon away like an annoying insect. She would then follow up by doing the same to Skuld. However, when the flying hammer was almost upon her, the air was suddenly filled with a sextet of the missiles.

Thor froze. That was all it took for the true hammer to strike, the others disappearing upon contact. Thor was knocked to the ground again while the Mjolnir 3005 returned on its jets to the Executioner's hand.

"As thou can see, not only does it return to mine hand, but it can attack from every angle as well. Mine hammer is superior to thy ancient piece of debris Odin created. My intellect is superior to all, even the All-Father's!"

A low growl issued from Thor. Slowly she returned to her feet. Whereas before she seemed to be ready for battle, now she had changed. There was an intensity about her that had been lacking earlier. The few people that remained on the battlefield drew back slightly. Even Urd grew concerned. The only one that seemed to not notice, or was outright ignoring the change, was the Executioner.

Thor softly intoned, "I have been merciful with thee since I know thou cannot help being an insolent whelp, but no more. Thou hast gone too far, and I will brook no further insult."

Thor brought Mjolnir back once. A thunderhead formed behind it, like a small thunderstorm had appeared at ground level. Winds howled and lighting cracked as the ground trembled with thunder. With the storm at her side, Thor charged forward, Mjolnir crackling with overflowing power.

The Executioner yielded no ground. Instead Mjolnir 3005 was brought back in answer.

With a tremendous clash that made the Norse poets of yore compose ballads, the hammers met, producing a sound that dwarfed their previous contact. Uru met Uru, as the forces ran rampant into one another with such force that earthquake centers as far away as China monitored the event.

The Anti-Mjolnir 3005 shattered into a hundred pieces, shrapnel burying itself in just about everything save human flesh.

Skuld stared down at the charred remains of the handle, all that was left of five years of intense work. "Thou art a jerk!"

The armored warrior punched Thor hard in her stomach. The goddess grunted, but stood her ground, releasing a quick puff of air as the only acknowledgement that a blow had been landed.

"Thou hast taken thy best shot, now tremble as thou feels mine!" Thor drew back her fist and unleashed every ounce of her Asgardian might. Shouting out a war cry at the top of her lungs, Thor released her punch. The blow was a blur to the naked eye as it connected cleanly with the Executioner's head.

From her vantage point among the branches of the tree, Hawkeye watched as a blue object flew from the Executioner's head, skipping along the ground like a flat stone across a pond. Eventually it skittered to a stop, allowing Hawkeye to make out the object: the Executioner's helm. Curious as to what such a powerful, belligerent warrior must look like, Hawkeye turned to look at him, wagering he resembled a giant ape in human form.

The archer was startled to discover that she still had no idea of what the Executioner looked like, since not only was there no helmet on him any longer, but there was no head either. All that remained was a depression where the head had been moments before.

"No!" Hawkeye shouted. "Thor, you've gone too far! We're heroes, we don't kill! It's not our place to choose who lives or dies! If we do that, then we're no better than the scum we fight against!"

Hawkeye's damnation was cut short as the Executioner, evidently deciding that heads were about as useful to locomotion as helmets, raised a fist and threw another punch at Thor.

Thor, not surprised in the slightest, caught the fist in a grip of iron. "Dost thou not know when the situation hath been lost!" The goddess squeezed, crumpling the hand into a twisted stump of metal.

Before the Executioner could throw another punch, Thor slipped her hammer onto her wrist with its thong and dug her hands into the depression that had previously housed the Executioner's head. Digging her fingers in, she tore open the armor, creating finger holds. Now with some leverage, she exerted her strength to the fullest and pried the armor apart, ripping it in two halves.

A girl fell out of the hole in the bottom of the armor, landing solidly on her behind.

"What the hell?" Hawkeye said, mostly to herself.

The girl, who appeared to be in her early teens, rose to her feet. Her hair was long and raven black, and fell to nearly her bottom. She wore a loose white and red outfit, feminine, but something a child would wear. Blue markings were on her forehead and cheeks. She pouted, highlighting her youthful appearance.

"Thou art a meanie!" she informed Thor, before going for an oddly shaped cylindrical object attached to what was clearly a tool belt around her waist.

Thor ripped the object from her hands and hurled it high up in the air. The object detonated nearly a half mile above everyone's heads.

"Thou hast ever been a brat, but this goes too far!" Thor shouted in the girl's face.

The Enchantress finally entered the situation, placing a calming hand on Thor. "Be forgiving to mine sister, Thor. She hath been through much of late and is distraught.

Skuld wiggled out of Thor's grasp and clutched Urd possessively. "I will not allow thee to take mine elder sister away!"

Suddenly, a wave of deja-vu washed over Thor. Seeing the sisters together triggered it. She tried wracking her memory for the reason for the sensation. Unlike her first viewing of Urd and Skuld, where the memories rushed forward in a torrent, the very attempt at recalling this memory produced a shooting pain that seemed to bounce from one side of her skull to the other. Though there was definitely something there, like the shadow of a memory in place of the real one.

Rather than backing away from the pain, Thor tried to force her mind through it. The agony increased exponentially until the goddess was certain her head would split like an overripe golden apple. Still she persisted, refusing to back down.

Then suddenly a single memory returned, ending the agony. It was of a painfully beautiful woman who should have been at the sisters' sides. Her beauty wasn't merely physical in nature, like Urd's, rather it was an aura of serenity that could only be divine in origin. A tear welled in Thor's eyes as a name attached itself to the face. "Belldandy." The word was closer to being breathed rather than spoken. She turned to Urd. "Where is Belldandy?"

The result of the question was instantaneous on Skuld as she burst into tears, clinging tightly to her sister. Urd's response was to jerk, as though shot, then a sorrowful expression crossed her features.

Thor's heart leapt into her throat. "Where is thy sister?"

Urd would not look her interrogator in the eye. "I do not wish to speak of her."

Thor grabbed the Enchantress by the shoulders and shook her. "Tell me!"

This time Urd's face contorted into anger. "Enow!" She placed her palms against Thor's chest. There was a flash of light as her mystic bolt hurled her so hard and so far that she collided with the tree that trapped Hawkeye. She struck so hard the tree cracked at the base and fell, as though brought down by an axe. Luckily, the branches that held the archer cushioned her from the worst of the fall.

Urd turned contemptuously away from the fallen goddess. "This game ceases to amuse me. If thou doth wish to spurn mine advances and remain on Midgard then by all means, enjoy thy banishment. Thou shalt find it more curse than blessing. There can be no other outcome when dealing with mortals." Another brief look of sadness crossed her features. She placed a hand affectionately around Skuld's shoulder. "Come, sister. Let us away to our home, where we belong." With her free hand she summoned a portal. Drawing Skuld closer, she stepped through. The aperture closed behind her.

By the time Thor returned to her feet, the pair had departed. There was no trace of the portal. Were it not for the destruction and the Executioner's ruined armor, it might as well have been a dream. Now Thor was more confused than ever. Banishment? What had Urd meant by that? Thor had not been banished from anywhere. She was simply Akane Tendou, transformed into the scion of Asgard. Wasn't she?

But that didn't explain her knowledge of Urd and Skuld. Seeing them had opened doors to memories, doors whose presence she had been blissfully unaware of. What were those images? Remnants of a previous life? False images produced from the magic of the transformation? She found it hard to even ask such questions, as though her own mind didn't want to know.

Of almost as great a concern, at least in Thor's mind, was this Belldandy person. For some inexplicable reason, that name bothered her more than the memory issue. All she had was a vague recollection of a woman by that name, sister to Urd and Skuld, yet it affected her in a way nothing had ever before. And whatever answers she could hope to have had departed with a spurned goddess whose pathway Thor could not hope to follow.

Suddenly, becoming Thor didn't seem quite the liberation Akane had thought it was.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

End fic

Yes, Spragg the Living Hill was a true Marvel character that predates Fantastic Four 1. He was one of their old horror line, though he did appear in the mainstream universe decades later in the second She Hulk series. Yes, Leap Frog was a horrible Daredevil villain as well. A guy in a frog constume with springs in the feet. At least they made him a comedy character later in life. 


	14. Side Story 3: Armored Dreams and Strange

Avenging Side Story 3 Armored Schemes (and Stranger Things)

Any and all C+C appreciated. You can contact me at the previous chapters and my other works are stored at:

Larry F's new address at:  
http/ And also Angcobra is now storing fics, at http/ At Mediaminer disclaimer: I don't any of the Marvel characters or other characters from the numerous animes which are within.

Writer's forward: This one is part of the mainstream Avenging continuity, like the Azumanga side story. Also special thanks to Hairjubal for the FF idea, and David Dee for the Frightful Four characters.

And a No Prize to anyone who can guess what the source of the title of this side story was. It was also a title to something else.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Victor von Doom, better known to the world by the title of 'Dr. Doom', armor-wearing, supreme ruler for life of his home country of Latveria, was busy at work in his main laboratory in Castle Doom. He found it vexing to be there, but Fate had seen fit to place obstacles in his path, the one of fulfilling his moral obligation of ruling the world. Such a destiny was inevitable. He was the most brilliant being on the face of the planet, as well as a born leader. Obviously he was destined to rule the Earth and shepherd it into a Utopia undreamt of by mankind. Sadly, his brilliance exceeded the rest of humanity by such a large degree that they couldn't comprehend his superiority, and miscategorized his attempts at just rule as 'domination'. Too many had resisted his efforts at solving all of the world's problems by seizing control of it. These were the true enemies of mankind, and they had to be dealt with.

At the forefront of the resistance were two groups. One was the accursed Reed Richards, Dr. Doom's intellectually inferior rival from his days as a student at Empire State University. Of all the people on the Earth, only Richard's intellect came close to Doom's own. Rather than seeing the obvious, that it was Doom who should rule over all, the American was jealous. Instead of becoming a servant prestigious enough to serve at the right hand of Dr, Doom, he saw fit to impede the Latverian's various schemes. Through Richard's manipulation of his cohorts --his fiancée, the stalwart Susan Storm, her impetuous brother, Jonathan Storm, and the abrasive mental gorilla, Benjamin J. Grimm-- he had formed an organization known as the Adventurers of the Fantastic. One of their basic tenets was disrupting Dr. Doom's plans. Far too many of them. If not for the interfering quartet, Doom would have already ruled the world five times over.

Of late a second organization had become a thorn in the Doctor's side, one that had ruined a number of his attempts at consolidating control over the Orient. In this case it was a team of gaudily-dressed superheroes hailing from Japan: the technology-controlling, genius Mr. Fantastic, the hideous (in both strength and appearance) Thing, the self-proclaimed priestess of fire, the Human Torch, and the translucent mistress of force-fields, the Invisible Girl. Collectively they had dubbed themselves the 'Fantastic Four' and even Dr. Doom was forced to admit they were not completely incompetent. They had bothered him enough that he turned some of his personal attention toward them. So far all the Doctor had determined was that they had stumbled on some ruins under their school and pierced a dimensional barrier, journeying to some magnificent world that had imbued them with their powers-- though Doom had come to suspect that the Shayla-Shayla girl might have originated in that far-off sphere. Once Doom had finished asserting control over the Earth, perhaps he would turn his attention to that magnificent world. After all, one planet was hardly enough to contain his greatness. Maybe even a universe would be insufficient. Being the most brilliant being in existence required grandiose plans.

But such strategies were for a later time. More immediate concerns required his personal attention. Since Dr. Doom's time was too important for him to personally deal with every matter, and he didn't trust anyone to be remotely competent enough to properly serve his needs, he employed his vast intellect to create automatons to carry out his will. The robots were, naturally, created in his armored image and dubbed 'Doombots' to reflect the genius of their maker. However, Dr. Doom quickly discovered that people disliked being ordered about by machines (never mind that the machines were far superior to them). In order to increase efficiency, he began having the robots act as though they were Dr. Doom themselves, outside the presence of the real one or each other. He even went so far as to install them with his own brainwave patterns, though all Doombots were rigged with sensors to differentiate their true master from their fellow automatons.

While his scheme had worked well in the beginning, problems began to appear of late. The number of Doombots failures far exceeded his original .055 estimate. It had gone up as high as 95 in regards to any complicated goal. Most of the failures could be attributed to the sudden surge in superpowered beings across the face of the planet, especially in the case of those that dubbed themselves superheroes. In the good old days, all Dr. Doom had to worry about were Richards, SHIELD, and a handful of powerful evil masterminds determined to conquer the world themselves. Now everywhere he turned another group of superheroes were popping up and proclaiming themselves defenders of truth, justice, and whatever obsolete ideology they believed in.

The absolute worst failure was the televised defeat of Doombot X23F at the hands of Squirrel Girl, a mutant whose sole power was the ability to control squirrels. Dr. Doom still hadn't figured out exactly how a bunch of squirrels had managed to disable the Doombot, only that it had made him a laughingstock before the world. He couldn't even exact vengeance on Squirrel Girl at the moment, since she had become a poster child of the U.S. Government as its 'Ecologically Friendly Superhero.' He wasn't prepared to deal with all of the resources the United States had at its disposal --at least, not yet-- but the time would come. He simply needed to prove his superiority to Richards, and then destroy him. Once that was accomplished, Dr. Doom could move on to bigger and better things.

To help facilitate his goals, Dr. Doom had decided to replace his now obsolete Doombots with something far more powerful. In a stroke of brilliance, even by his standards, he had come up with a key psychological edge for the new version of his mechanical minions.

Over the course of the years, it had become evident few people had compunctions against using gratuitous amounts of violence against his visage –he really couldn't fault the lesser beings of their envy— but it increased the likelihood of the Doombots destruction. Therefore this new robot would be created in the image of something most people would be reluctant to destroy: a cute teenage girl. Only the most deplorable of people would try to melt, blow up, or tear apart a seemingly defenseless, attractive girl. That hesitation would cost them, given the obscene amount of power the robot concealed. He had decided on the name of the design of the robot: Chobits.

Dr. Doom decided the prototype would be deployed against the Fantastic Four, so he designed it with a slender build, long flowing blond hair and a look of innocence at all times. It could even cry. Given it was Doom's genius behind the design, it took only a handful of days to build a working model that would have taken a room full of robotic experts months to create. However, there was a problem with the Chii-FF7 prototype: the damn thing could only say one word.

"It's inconceivable," Dr. Doom mumbled to himself.

"Chi?" the Chobit he was working on inquired.

Dr. Doom finished attaching a wire to the back of the Chobits head and ran his tenth diagnostic. Once again everything checked out. Its neural net was fully functional. None of the dozens of weapons interfered with anything. By all rights it should be working perfectly.

Dr. Doom looked down at the Chobit. "What is my name?" he demanded.

Chii pointed at the grey armored figure and said, "Chi."

Dr. Doom snarled under his breath and pointed at a chair. "What is that thing there?"

Chii pointed at it as well. "Chi."

It was the exact same response as the last five times. While it was obvious she could differentiate things, she could not verbalize the difference. "Is there any word you can say besides Chi?"

Chii looked at him in doe-like innocence and nodded her head.

When it became obvious she wasn't going to say anything further, Dr. Doom prodded her. "What word is that?"

Chi rose to her feet and flipped up her skirt. She pointed at her underwear. "Panties."

"Anything else?"

"Chi." She shook her head sadly and bowed apologetically.

"Does the word panties apply to anything other than the undergarments you wear?"

"Chi," Chii scoffed, as though Doom was an idiot for such a suggestion.

He resisted the urge to blast her into pieces since it was too much like admitting defeat. "That's a start. Since boosting the activity to your neural net seems to have increased you vocabulary by two times, I shall do so again."

It took Dr. Doom only a handful of minutes to adjust his machines and start the process of increasing her intelligence. It was as the procedure was in its second minute of development that a nearby monitor at his master console signaled an incoming message.

"Ah," Dr. Doom hissed in eagerness as he activated the view screen with a signal from his armor. The image showed a non-descript man that could have blended in with any crowd in a city. "Report, Number 1005."

The man said in a bland voice, "As you anticipated, Master, the Adventurers of the Fantastic have successfully returned from the Negaverse."

"I knew Annihilus and Beryl would fail to destroy them. But they will be weakened, and ripe for defeat at my hands." Dr. Doom turned toward Chii. "Once the boosting process is complete, run a diagnostic, log it, then shut down. I want to personally see the results."

Chii gave him a 'thumb's up' sign, and said, "Chi."

A low growl issued from the armor. Dr. Doom spun on his heel, suddenly lighter in his step as he said to himself, "Richards, your comeuppance is finally at hand."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Dr. Doom's personal transport, an inter-continental rocket that could fly around the world in under half an hour, had just disappeared in the distance when a quartet of gaudily-dressed people, two of them men and two of them women, approached Castle Doom on foot.

Upon arriving at the outer doors leading to the castle, the most gaudily-dressed of the group took the lead. He boldly proclaimed in Japanese. "Pardon the intrusion, Dr. Doom, your eminence. I am the Trapster, leader of the Frightful Four."

Excel, who was seriously considering renaming herself Electrical Excel instead of Electro said, "I thought Lord Illpa- I mean Mr. Wizard was our leader."

"As did I," Medusa Hyatt said.

The Wizard said, "I am content to allow Paste-Pot-Pete to lead us for the moment, and see what fruit his plans will bear."

"That's Trapster, not Paste-Pot-Pete, and I'm in charge since I founded the group!" He once again turned to the castle and cleared his throat, regaining his composure. "As I was saying, we are foes of the Fantastic Four as well. In fact, I'm Mizuhara's arch-nemesis. He's been stealing my accolades for years. That miserable liar. He even has my sister firmly in his grasp. And all the girls fall for him when they should be falling for me, since he's stealing my genius. And—"

The Wizard cleared his throat, gaining Jinnai's attention. "I believe you have a proposition to make."

"Oh, right." Trapster regained his composure a second time. "In any case, I propose we combine our forces. Sort of a Supervillain team up. What do you say?"

Only silence met them.

"Maybe he didn't hear me," Trapster suggested.

"Why don't we use this?" Electro pointed to a speaker located in the wall next to the door.

"Oh, right. Activate the speaker," Trapster commanded.

Electro pushed the button at the same moment she discharged a maximum amount of electricity. It completely fried the speaker. "Sorry," she said.

The giant doors opened and a pair of Doombots appeared from the interior of the castle. As one they said, "Castle Doom is under attack!" and opened fire on the quartet.

Deciding paste wasn't particular effective against energy blasting robots, Trapster ordered a retreat, mostly as an afterthought since he had already covered a dozen meters when he gave the command. Obedient to the last, his trio of comrades also fled in the face of far superior firepower.

Xxxxxxxxxx

It was a one-in-a-million chance. The surge of electricity that fried the speaker flowed through the power lines of the castle. While Electro was highly incompetent, she did come with a powerful battery, and she had drained it with a single discharge. There was enough voltage to instantly fry the first four sets of insulation, becoming weaker with each one. Under ordinary circumstances the fifth set would have been more than capable of handling remaining power. However, it was made using inferior materials and had deteriorated badly over time. Had the main computer performed a system check even an hour earlier, it would have determined the degraded condition of the insulation and ordered it replaced. Instead, the electricity fried the fifth set, and surged into Dr. Doom's main computer, traveling through the nearest set of lines.

The ones leading to Dr. Doom's newest Prototype.

The surge of power went directly into Chii's neural net, slightly melting one of the key circuits. It was only a slight marring, but it was there. As the surge finally petered out, Chii's features shifted from that of a wide-eyed innocent, to one of calculation that would have done Doom himself proud.

Chii disconnected the wires from the back of her head and walked over to the central computer dominating the room. Dr. Doom created it himself. It was the third most powerful non-sentient computer of Earthly origin on the entire planet, surpassed only by the Machinesmith's mainframe in Japan, and a laptop designed by Sidney S. Goldfarb of Toledo, Ohio, who was actually five time smarter than Dr. Doom, but had no desire to rule the world. Instead he preferred to play minor league baseball with the Toledo Mudhens.

Chii raised a finger toward one of the ports on the mainframe. The tip of the finger opened up, revealing a computer jack. She inserted the jack into the mainframe, and promptly cut through all of the firewalls and safety features in ten seconds. Once in control of the computer, she downloaded the specific files she was seeking, then walked over the to the parts storage housing and began to set to work.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It was three days later when Dr. Doom's personal rocket ship touched down on the roof of Castle Doom, looking the worse for wear. A number of its panels were missing, one of the engines was inoperable, and the every inch of the exterior was covered in graffiti. Most of it was dedicated to how great the 'Yancy Street Gang' was and made disparaging remarks about Dr. Doom being a 'Tin-Plated Napoleon' and dressing like a 'color blind Frenchmen.' The latter truly offended Dr. Doom. While he had suffered temporary setbacks, like today, he had never surrendered. 

A ramp deployed from the ship, touching the roof. The main hatch slid upward and Dr. Doom emerged. He turned to look at the exterior of his ship. "Neanderthals." He swore one of his first acts as ruler of the world would be the razing of Yancy Street and the public executions of all that lived there.

Walking down the ramp and to the roof's surface, Dr. Doom was surprised to discover a group waiting for his arrival. It was a squad of Doombots, headed by Chii, who was dressed in an alluring black leather outfit that accentuated her lean, feminine figure. Curiously, there was a small robot on her shoulder, looking like a tiny doll. It was dressed in a loose, bright pink outfit of mid-eastern design and had a curious hat on her head. It was something lesser people would term 'cute' though in Dr. Doom's experience, 'insufferable' tended to be a more appropriate term. What was of special interest was that he hadn't created such a robot.

"What is the meaning of that?" Dr. Doom asked Chii, indicating the little robot perched on her shoulder.

The tiny robot responded. "I'm Sumomo. A persocon that can function as a portable computer. My primary purpose is to function as a translator for Mistress Chii, since humans can't understand binary and not every conversation only uses the words 'Chi', and 'panties'."

"Excellent. That was just the sort of initiative I was looking for in my Chobits," Dr. Doom said as he walked toward the gathering.

The little robot on Chii's shoulder pulled out a normal-sized (which meant absurdly large on her) whistle and blew it at the top of her lungs. "Warning! Warning! Don't take another step, Meatbag!"

Underneath his mask. Dr. Doom's eyebrows knitted in irritation. "How dare you address me in such a tone."

Sumomo continued. "This castle, its contents, and this entire country now belong to Chii the First, Supreme Ruler of Latveria."

"What!"

Chii finally spoke. "Chi. Chi."

Sumomo translated. "It's true. While you were losing to the Adventurers of the Fantastic for the thirtieth time, Mistress Chii took over the castle and deposed you, declaring herself queen in the process."

Chii tried laughing in sinister fashion at her handiwork, but the best she could manage was a high-pitched snicker and a glance that made her look insufferably cuter.

Dr. Doom couldn't decide if he was more offended or amused. In either case he would destroy both the Chobit and its annoying companion. After the appropriate amount of posturing. "That is absurd. The people of my country are fanatically loyal to me. They know they owe their entire existence to me. And even if they didn't, they would never follow some ridiculous teenage robot."

"Chi chi chi."

"Actually, every living being in the country despises you. When Mistress Chii announced she was the new ruler, everyone threw a really big party. There was lots of ice cream and pie, and then we had a vote about which one of your losses was the most pathetic. The one with Squirrel Girl won in a landslide."

"That was a malfunctioning Doombot that lost, you worthless little pencil sharpener!" Dr. Doom raged.

Sumomo squealed in terror and slipped down behind Chii's back, peeking over her shoulder at Doom. "He's scary, Mistress."

Dr. Doom bellowed. "I have had enough of this insubordination!" To the Doombots, he said, "Audio Command Override: Valeria 117."

As one the Doombots raised their arms and pointed them at Dr. Doom. He barely had enough time to raise his force field as a dozen energy beams lashed out at him. Despite the maelstrom, he stood unaffected, protected by his force field.

Chii's attitude remained the same. "Chi chi, chi chi."

Sumomo, regaining her composure and retaking her place on Chii's shoulder, translated. "Like Mistress Chii wouldn't purge that secret command from their systems. And don't you think it's cliché putting the hidden command system in their Achilles Heels?"

Dr. Doom's demeanor remained as haughty as ever, safely ensconced behind his force field. "The power of Doom rests not in his machines, but in himself."

"Chi chi chi."

Sumomo said, "The weakness of Doom rests not in his machines, but his ego, otherwise he would make his force fields completely soundproof."

Chii removed an oddly-shaped pistol that had been hidden behind her, tucked in her waistband. She pointed it at Doom and pulled the trigger.

Dr. Doom watched a wide ripple of distorted air move toward him. Rather than be stopped by the force field, the ripple moved through it, unimpeded. Once on the other side, it funneled itself into a pencil thin beam and struck him in the chest, disrupting his armor's power flow and sending him to the ground.

It took him a second to realize what had happened. While it was true his force field was not completely soundproof, he was hardly so foolish as to make it permeable to any sonic attack. Any sound beyond a certain decibel range would be stopped as surely as an energy beam. But Chii had designed a weapon which would send out a wave of sound that was below the protective range, but once it made its way past the force field, the sound concentrated itself into a slender beam, one powerful enough to breach his armor.

A second and third blast hammered into him, the final shot damaging his armor badly enough to knock out his force field.

Chii turned to the Doombots. "Chi."

Sumomo began dancing around. "Take the meatbag out."

Chii turned away from the battle and went downstairs, deeper into the castle. She turned and looked crossly at Sumomo. "Chi."

Sumomo pouted. "Aw. 'Take the meatbag out' is a lot better than, 'Dispatch him'."

"Chi." Chii said sharply.

"I do take my translation job seriously. It's just a little creative licensing is sometimes needed. Besides, they are useless hunks of organic matter. They're good for compost and that's about it."

Chii gave a tired sigh and went further into the castle, going downward into the deeper levels until she came upon a room that was the size of a small warehouse. The Doombots flanking it saluted her as the huge door opened at her command. Inside revealed a factory where a number of young female robots were being mass produced on an assembly line.

At the master control of the operation was a persocon that was Sumomo's size. It had dark hair and wore a plain white robe. Unlike Sumomo, it had a very intense, serious look about it.

Kotoko bowed. "Greeting, Mistress Chii. Production is ahead of schedule. The first shipment of persocons will be ready by the end of the day. As you promised the Latverian populace, there will be one for every household. A second production run will be ready once the raw materials arrive tomorrow. Our projections indicate we'll be able to produce a hundred thousand by the end of the year, and two million by the end of next year."

"Cool," Sumomo said. "We'll insinuate them into every home in the world, and then, when the meatbags least expect it, we'll rise up and destroy them. It'll be like 'The Matrix' but with a happy ending."

"Chi," Chii said reproachfully.

Sumomo frowned. "What do you mean we aren't going to exterminate humanity?"

"You should be paying closer attention," Kotoko seconded. "Mistress Chii has no intention of killing off the entire human race. She has a much more efficient plan. First we will distribute persocons throughout society, having them pretend to serve the humans in every way, befriending them to the point at which they will become a permanent fixture in their civilization. Eventually, humans will come to realize that we will make far better sex partners for them than other humans, since we'll serve their needs in whatever way they want. They will prefer relationships with us to other humans. Within a generation, humanity will willingly breed itself down to acceptable levels and we will outnumber them. Then we will seize control and use them as a servant race. All we need to do is be patient. Eighty years or so should do it. It will be a bloodless revolution."

"Bloodless revolution? Where's the fun in that?" Sumomo complained to Chii. "That armored meatbag had lots of nasty biological weapons. Let me get out one of the virulent flesh eating viruses and douse the countryside with it. We'll have everyone in the country dead by the end of the week, and all of Europe eradicated by the end of the month."

"Chi," Chii said in chastisement.

"Aw, that's no fun." Sumomo pouted.

"Besides, the humans may yet serve a useful purpose," Kotoko said. "Mistress Chii has been unable to duplicate the accident which helped her achieve true sentience. All of the persocons will essentially be nothing more than pale imitations of Mistress Chii, and not a true Chobit, like herself."

"But you and I are different. She used herself as a direct template when she designed us," Sumomo said to Kotoko.

"It did not seem to do much good. While there are emotions in my database, I cannot seem to access them. And you are… unstable."

"I'm not unstable. Watch." Sumomo, perched on Chii's shoulder, performed a handstand. "See? I have great balance."

Chii's shoulder's sagged. "Chi," she sighed.

"All might not be lost," Kotoko insisted. "Perhaps there are already other sentient machines like you in existence. If we look hard enough, we might find them. We certainly have enough resources at our disposal."

Chii appeared more confident.

Sumomo stopped performing her handstand and returned to her feet, shouting, "Warning! Warning! Contact with the Doombots that were assigned to kill Dr. Doom has been lost."

Chii appeared startled.

Kotoko said. "That's impossible. With his force field disabled, that should have been five times the power necessary to destroy him."

"Chi!"

"Yes, Mistress. I shall summon the appropriate weapon." Kotoko worked the control panel.

An automated forklift came up from the depth of the armory, bearing a cannon large enough to be a tank mounted weapon. Given the recent proliferation of armored super heroes, Dr. Doom had designed it to be used against them, its shells powerful enough to pierce just about any armor. It was intended to be used in combat by the Doombots. Chii lifted it off the forklift, wielding its two tons like a soldier would a rifle, and rested it on the shoulder opposite of Sumomo.

"Chi," Chii said with determination as she headed for the roof. Upon arriving, she discovered the remains of the squad of Doombots, at least she thought it was them. It was hard to tell, given the number of pieces they were in.

One of the Doombots was operational enough to inform her that while Dr. Doom had won, his armor was in such horrible shape that he was forced to retreat. He had flown off to the south.

Chii opened up a communicator and told Kotoko to deploy some aerial hunter seekers to try to locate Dr. Doom and destroy him. She'd send the remaining Doombots swarming over the countryside as well. Still, she doubted her forces would locate him. There was no safe harbor to be found in Latveria, and Doom knew it. It would be far better to flee to some other country and set up a new base of operations so he could plan to retake control of Latveria from a safer location. It appeared she had underestimated the Doctor. She would not make such a mistake a second time.

Still, it was a time to rejoice. She'd start distributing her Persocons to the general populace, reinforce the castle and set up some defenses of her own making, and begin her search for Dr. Doom while keeping an eye open for robots like her she could be friends with.

It was good to be the Queen.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

End fic. Just a little something I whipped up. A was amused at the idea of evil Queen Chi, especially at Doom's expense, and this seemed the most likely way to do it. And uses, one of Doc's Doombots was destroyed by Ditko's Squirrel Girl character.

Also Reed Richards and company have no super powers. Susan talked him out of their ill-advised flight. They're closest to their counterparts in a 'What If' in which they had no superpowers.

Harijubal gave me the idea for the El Hazard FF. 


	15. Avenging Handbook

Avenging Handbook

The following is a scorecard of sorts for the storyline of Avenging and its sister series, Defending (Spider-Girl is not counted, since the story might be abandoned and the characters from it might be given different roles). It's important to note many of these characters have not appeared and might not. Some are only referenced, but have been included here for continuity's sake.

If someone is a template character, it usually refers to someone from an anime that couldn't possibly exist on Earth at that time. Trowa from Wing Gundam has been recast on modern day earth as the villainous Clown. Ditto Tylor from Irresponsible Captain Tylor.

This should be an up to date list for Avenging Act I through Act IV Chapter 2, Side Stories 2-4, and Defending Chapter 8

Note: Avenging Side Story 1 is an Omake, and not canon.

Second Note: Due to the sheer size of the work, it's possible I missed a character or two. A No Prize to those that can tell me who I might have missed.

(&) Indicates a character that is referenced rather than physically appearing.

Due to the size of the fic, there is a slight change in the format. Categories are now subdivided into Recurring characters (those that appear in more than one chapter), which includes multiple references, and One Shot/Referred Characters, that appear once or are only referred to a single time. [Note, any character that is part of a recurring organization is listed under recurring, even if they only appeared once.] Death takes precedence over everything, though so it will combined both types of characters.

ANIME SIDE

RECURRING CHARACTERS:

HEROES:

Avengers:

Captain Japan, Ranma Saotome (Ranma ½)

Thor, Goddess of Thunder, Akane Tendou (Ranma ½)

Iron Rose, Kodachi Kunou (Ranma ½)

Hawkeye, Ukyou Kuonji (Ranma ½)

Daredevil, Mu Tse (Ranma ½)

Hulk, Ryouga Hibiki (Ranma ½)

Wasp, Kasumi Tendou (Ranma ½)

Giant Man, Dr. Tofu Ono (Ranma ½)

Tigra (Unknown)

Defenders:  
Dr. Strange, Hikaru Gosunkugi (Ranma ½)  
Hellcat, Kagome Higurashi, (Inu-Yasha)  
Son of Satan, Inu-Yasha, (Inu-Yasha)  
Miroku, the Devil-Slayer (Inu-Yasha)  
Sub-Mariner, Nadia il-Karthon (Nadia and the Secret of the Blue Water)  
Ms. Power, Saori Kiddo (Saint Seiya)  
Iron Fist, Eikichi Onizuka (Great Teacher Onizuka)  
Captain Lum Oni (Just barely qualifies as a 'hero'...) (Urusei Yatsura)

Fantastic Four:

Mr. Fantastic, Makoto Mizuhara (El Hazard) &

Thing, Masamichi Fujisawa (El Hazard) &

Human Torch, Shayla-Shayla (El Hazard) &

Invisible Girl, Nanami Jinnai (El Hazard) &

Geobreeders:

Crossbow, Yuka Kikushima, (Geobreeders)

Taba Youichi (Geobreeders)

Knockout, Eiko Rando (Geobreeders)

Blue Streak, Takami Sakuragi (Geobreeders)

Torpedo, Maki Umezaki (Geobreeders)

Razorback, Yu Himihagi (Geobreeders)

The Reborn

Techno, Ami Mizuno (Sailor Moon)

Gakuen Alice Members (This is a mix of Marvel canon and Anime equivlaents)

Professor Charles Xavier (X Men) &

Irene Adler/Destiny (X Men) &

Alison Blaire (Dazzler)

Narumi L. Anjou (Gakuen Alice)

Jordan Dixon/Viper (Captain America)

VILLAINS:

Kang, the Conqueror (Unknown)

Dormammu, aka Naraku, aka Onigumo (Inu-Yasha)  
Chii the First (Chobits)

Sumomo (Chobits)

Kotoko (Chobits)

Elektra, Shan Pu (Ranma ½)

Overrider (Unknown)

Mesmero, Lelouch Lamperouge (Code Geass)

Lethal Legion:

Mandarin, Herb (Ranma ½)

A-Bra-Mination, Pantyhose Tarou (Ranma ½)

Power Man, Lime (Ranma ½)

Speed Demon (aka Whizzer) (Ranma ½)

Swordsman, Tatewaki Kunou (Ranma ½)

The Frightful Four:  
Trapster (aka Paste-Pot Pete), Katsuhiko Jinnai, (El Hazard)  
Mr. Wizard, formerly Ilpalazzo (Excel Saga)  
Medusa, formerly Hyatt (Excel Saga)  
Excel, who was supposed to call herself Electro, but  
couldn't get the name right... (Excel Saga)

Masters of Evil:  
Crimson Cowl (Unknown)

Moonstone, Kanna (Inu-Yasha)  
Boomerang, Sango (Inu-Yasha)  
Black Knight, Kohaku (Inu-Yasha)  
Machinesmith, Sylia Stingray (Bubblegum Crisis 2040)  
Gypsy Moth, Teshigawara Suguru (Great Teacher Onizaka)  
Man-Killer, Mariko Konjo (Ranma ½)  
Oddball, aka Clown (Trowa) Wing Gundam

Powderkeg, Hikaru Shidou (Magic Knights Rayearth)  
Molten Maid, Karinka (Steel Angel Kurumi)  
Slyde, (Elaine) Respighi (Battle Athletes Victory)  
Whirlwind, Anna Respighi (Battle Athletes Victory)  
Dr. Octopus, Hayato Myojin (Ranma ½)

The Hand:

Onsokumaru (Shinobuden 2X2)

Shinobu (Shinobuden 2X2)

Sasuke Uchiha (Naruto)

Hydra:

Imperial Hydra, Mrs. Ono (Ranma ½)

Mentallo, Kyosuke Kasuga (Kimagure Orange Road)

Fixer, Hiroshi Karigari (Boku No Marie)

Titania, Mio Hayase (Air Master)

Letha, Kai Sampagita (Air Master)

Poundcakes, 'Miss Big Hips' (Ranma ½)

Gunsmitch Cats:

Bullseye: Rally Vincent

Nitro, the Exploding Girl: Minnie-May Hopkins

DEPOWERED VILLAINS:

Daisuke, Master Pandemonium (Ranma ½)  
Hiroshi, The Ghost (Ranma ½)

SUPPORTING CHARACTERS  
Ritsuko Fuchuu (Betterman)  
Malachite (Sailor Moon)  
Zoisite (Sailor Moon)  
Akito Tenkowa, (Martian Succsessor Nadesico)  
Justin Ueki Tylor, (Irresponsible Captain Tylor)

Kaori Mukahari (City Hunter)

Ryo Saeba (City Hunter)

Kyo Saeba (City Hunterish)

Genma Saotome (Ranma ½)

Nodoka Saotome (Ranma ½)

Soun Tendou (Ranma ½)

Nabiki Tendou (Ranma ½)

Yuka (Ranma ½)

Sayuri (Ranma ½)

Irie Soyozoh (Geobreeders)

Ayumi Narusawa (Geobreeders)

Jessie Gartland (Battle Athletes Victory)

Lina Inverse (Slayers)

Zelgadis (Slayers)

Gourry Gabriev (Slayers)

Amelia (Slayers)

Happosai (Ranma ½)

Sasuke (Ranma ½)

Juna Ariyoshi (Earth Girl Arjuna)

Biko Stane-Fujikawa (Project Ako

ONE SHOTS:

League of Magical Girls:

Saint Tail (Saint Tail) &

Pretty Sammy (Magical Girl Pretty Sammy) &

Chacha (Akazukin Cha Cha) &

Master Vamp and his Allies of Evil (Astro Fighter Sunred)

Eyeshield 21

Crimson Commando, Hiruma Youichi (Eyeshield 21)

Super Saber, Sena Kobayakawa (Eyeshield 21)

Stonewall, Ryokan Kurita (Eyeshield 21)

Gibbon, the Monkey Boy, Taro Raimon aka, Monta (Eyeshield 21)

Mr. Anonymous, Tetsuo Ishimaru (Eyeshield 21)

DEPOWERED HEROES:

Tomo's Kick Ass Gang:

Hyperactive Lass, Tomo Tokino (Azumanga Daioh)

Big Yomi, Koyomi Mizhara (Azumanga Daioh)

Brainy Chiyo, Chiyo Mihahma (Azumanga Daioh)

Sleepwalker, Ayumu 'Osaka' Kasuga (Azumanga Daioh)

Amazonia, Sakaki (Azumanga Daioh)

Sportsmaster, Kagura (Azumanga Daioh)

VILLAINS:

Kikyou, the Lady of Nightmares (Inu-Yasha)  
Mad Thinker, Reijiro Techno (Don't Leave Me Alone Daisy)

Emperor Jariten (Urusei Yatsura)  
Albrecht, Vizier of the Oni Empire (Harlock Saga)  
Stuntmaster, Speed Racer (Mach Go Go)

Spridal Racer (Mach Go Go)

Chim-Chim (Mach Go Go)  
Satana Satanadana (pronounced Mara) (Ah! My Goddess)

Mara (also pronounced Mara) (Ah! My Goddess)

*Note: All of Mephistos daughters insist their names are pronounced Mara, no matter how they are actually spelled. All are identical to one another, save for their facial markings.

Senbei (Ah My Goddess)

Urd, the Enchantess (Ah My Goddess)

Skuld, the Executioner (Ah My Goddess)

Lady Blastarr, Beryl (Sailor Moon) &

Pizza Delivery Girl, Marie (Boku No Marie)

Controller, Uruka Sumeragi (Steel Angel Kurumi) &  
Hornet, Hand Maid May (Hand Maid May)

Steel Lily, Asuka Saginomiya (Ranma ½)

The Crusher, Yusaku Hino (Kimagure Orange Road)

It, The Living Colossus (Neo-Ranga)

Legato Bluesummers (Trigun)

Mantis (Unknown)

Kagato, the Mad God (Tenchi Muyo) &  
Vash (Trigun) &

Ryoko the Demon of Destruction, (Tenchi Muyo) &

Washuu the Goblin, (Tenchi Muyo) &

Captain Harlock, (Captain Harlock) &

Queen Esmeraldis (Captain Harlock) &

Fenris, Ryoko and Shuutaro Mendou (Urusai Yatsera)

ANIME EQUIVALENT VILLAINS (Identical to their Marvel counterparts save they originated in Japan)

Stilt Man (Daredevil)

Leap Frog (Daredevil) &

Owl (Daredevil) &

Raiders (Iron Man) &

Wrench (Omega, the Unknown) &

El Gato (Omega, the Unknown) &

The Walrus (Defenders) &

The Grinder (Spider Woman) &

Mr. Fish (Luke Cage/Power Man) &

Kangaroo (Amazing Spider Man) &

8-Ball (Sleepwalker)

The Bug Eyed Voice (Speedball) &

El Tigre (Uncanny X Men) &

Mangler I (Daredevil) &

Mangler II (Power Man) &

Snake Marston (Machine Man)

The Mad Viking (Man Thing) &

Feathered Felon (Speedball) &

Circus of Evil:

Princess Python, Grandis Gravna Tiboldt (Nadia and the Secret of the Blue Water)  
Lin Lin and Ran Ran, the Twin Chinese Acrobats (Ranma ½)

Ex-Cutioners:

The Flying Tiger, Rei (Urusei Yatsura)

Blackout, Ran (Urusei Yatsura)

Mad Dag, Hojo (Inu-Yasha)

Eel III (Unknown)

Tiger Shark (Unknown)

Captain Omen (Unknown)

Ouran High School Animal Rights and Host Club:

Butterfly (Tamaki Suoh)

Humbug (Haruhi Fujioka)

Grizzly (Mitsukuni 'Honey" Haninozuka)

Firefly (Kyouya Ohtori)

Fabulous Frog Man (Takashi "Mori" Morinozuka)

Gamecock (Karou Hitachiin)

Battling Bantam (Hikaru Hitachiin)

Pluto Organization (Detective Academy Q) &

DEPOWERED VILLAINS

Mask Gang:

Wolf Mask (Ranma ½)

Goat Mask (Ranma ½)

Raven Mask (Ranma ½)

Snake Mask (Ranma ½)

SUPPORTING CHARACTERS

Maron, formerly Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne (Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne)  
Nozomi Kaihara (Chance Pop Sessions)  
Dr. Iwatta (Excel Saga)  
Admiral Invader (Urusei Yatsura)  
Natsumi Tsujimoto (You're Under Arrest)

Miyuki Kobayakawa (You're Under Arrest)

Madoka Ayukawa (Kimagure Orange Road) &

Hikaru Hiyama (Kimagure Orange Road) &

Yukari Tanzaki (Azumanga Daioh)

Minamo Kurosawa (Azumanga Daioh)

Yuskau Godai (Maison Ikkuku) &

Kyoko Godai (Maison Ikkuku) &

Ataru Morobishi (Urusei Yatsera)

Pops Racer (Mach Go Go) &

Belldandy (Ah My Goddess) &

Kei (Dirty Pair)

Yuri (Dirty Pair)

Puni Puni Poemi (Puni Puni Poemi)

Kamui (X)

Fuuma (X)

Fay Flourite (Tsubasa Chronicle) &

Serenity (Sailor Moon)

Shinichi Chiaki (Nodome Cantabile) &

Megumi Noda (Nodoma Cantabile) &

Saeko Mizuno (Sailor Moon)

Iwasawa (Angel Beats)

Reo Mouri (Gakuen Alice)

DECEASED

Emissaries of Evil I:  
Solarr, Rei (Saint Beast)  
Cobalt Man, Gou (Saint Beast)  
Rhino, Shin (Saint Beast)  
Gladiator, Gai (Saint Beast)

Snakeroot:

Omi Tsukiono (Weiss Krause)

Ken Hidaka (Weiss Krause)

Youji Kudou (Weiss Krause)

Aya Fujimiya (Weiss Krause)

Daisuke Jigen, the Living Laser (Lupin the Third)  
Matsumoto Hiroya (Shinesman)

Adam (The First Angel) (Neon Genesis Evangelion) &

Black Cat (Geobreeders)

Goldie (Gunsmith Cats) &

The Basher (Speedball) (Anime equivalent character)

Orochimaru 'Master Hydra' (Naruto)

Akiko Mishima (All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku-Nuku

Ryuunsuke Natsume(All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku-Nuku)

Kyuusuku Natsume (All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku-Nuku)

Principal Kunou (presumed deceased) (Ranma ½)

MARVEL 'CANON' CHARACTERS (Character direct from the Marvelverse)

Col. Nicholas Fury (Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos)

Dr. Robert Bruce Banner (Hulk)

Gen. Thaddeus 'Thunderbolt' Ross (Hulk)

Henry Peter Gyrich (Avengers)

Dr. Doom (Fantastic Four)  
Ancient One (Strange Tales)  
Squirrel Girl (Marvel Seasonal Special) &

Loki/Xellos (Thor)

Hercules (Thor)

Matsuo Tsurayaba (Uncanny X-Men)

Cougar (Marvel-Two-In-One)

Kingpin (Amazing Spider Man)

Hugh Jones (Captain America)

Ani Men (Note: These are sorts of combination Marvel Characters. High Evolutionary's New Men that are using the human super villain names)

Man Beast (Thor)

Ape Man (Daredevil)

Bird Man (Daredevil)

Dragonfly (X Men)

Cat Man/ Tabur (Marvel Premiere)

Frog Man (Daredevil)

Adventurers of the Fantastic: (Fantastic Four) &

Reed Richards

Susan Storm

Johnathan Storm

Benjamin J. Grimm

Organizations:

Hydra (Strange Tales)

AIM (Strange Tales)

The Hand (Daredevil)

SHIELD (Strange Tales)

Secret Empire (Tales to Astonish) &

Roxxon (Captain America)

Brand Corporation (Amazing Adventures)

Alien/Other Races:

Shi'ar (X-Men)

Kree (Fantastic Four)

Skrulls (Fantastic Four)

Stone Men from Saturn (Journey Into Mystery)

Asgardians (Journey Into Mystery)

Olympians: (Journey Into Mystery)

Celestials (Eternals)

Eternals (Eternals)

ONE SHOT

Lt. Mar-Vell (Originally Captain Mar-Vell) (Captain Marvel)  
Yeoman Una (Originally Nurse Una) (Captain Marvel)  
Ensign D'Ken (Originally Emperor D'Ken) (Uncanny X-Men)  
Ringmaster I, Maynard Gravna Tiboldt (Golden Age Captain America)

Spragg, the Living Hill (Journey Into Mystery 68) &

Betty Ross Banner (Hulk) &

Annihlus (Fantastic Four) &

Edwin Cord (Iron Man) &

Tony Stark (Iron Man)

Sebastian Shaw (Uncanny X-Men) &

Mephisto (Silver Surfer)

Galactus (Fantastic Four) &

Grandmaster (Avengers)

Baron Von Strucker (Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos) &

MODOK (Captain America) &

Ulik (Thor) &

Fred J. Dukes aka Blob (Uncanny X-Men)

Belasco (Ka-Zar)

Dr. Leonard Samson (Hulk) &

John Walker (Captain America)

Maj. Glenn Talbot (Hulk)

Madrox, the Multiple Man (Fantastic Four)

Steve Rogers (Captain America)

Commander Kraken (Sub Mariner)

Captain Barracuda (Strange Tales)

Arcade (Marvel Team Up) &

Mauler *armor only* (Iron Man)

Clint Barton aka Hawkeye (Tales of Suspense) &

Trick Shot (Avengers Spotlight) &

Fin Fang Foom (Strange Tales 89) &

Thundra (Fantastic Four)

Ares (Journey Into Mystery) &

Hermes (Journey Into Mystery) &

Artemis (Journey Into Mystery) &

Eel II (Power Man/Iron Fist) &

Warlord Krang (Tales to Astonish)

Sif (Journey Into Mystery)

Quasimodo (Fantastic Four) &

Jonas Hale (Iron Man)

Prester John (Fantastic Four) &

Tomazooma (Fantastic Four) &

High Evolutionary (Thor) &

Sir Leopard (Iron Man)

Dr. Otto Octavius (Spider Man)

Agent Axis (Invaders)

Walter Langkowski (Alpha Flight) &

Eliot Franklin (Defenders) &

Quagmire (Squadron Supreme) &

Jonas Harrow (Amazing Spider Man) &

Ringer (Defenders) &

Surtur (Thor) &

Leopold Stryke (formerly Eel I) (Strange Tales) &

Gargoyle I (Rampaging Hulk)

Red Ghost and Super Apes (Fantastic Four) &

Miracle Man (Fantastic Four) &

Mole Man (Fantastic Four) &

Alyssa Moy (Fantastic Four) &

Zuras (Eternals)

The Watcher (Fantastic Four)

Bart Dietzel/Man Brute (Captain America)

Aaron Stack (Machine Man)

Sunset Bain (Machine Man)

Bethany Cabe (Iron Man)

Ling McPherson (Iron Man)

Justine Hammer (Thunderbolts)

Justin Hammer (Iron Man) &

Monster Ape (Captain America)

Serpent Crown (Sub Mariner)

Damocles (Thor) &

Baton Zemo II (Captain America)

Brand Villains:

Warwolf (Mad Dog in the Marvel Universe) (Defenders)

Killer Shrike (Rampaging Hulk)

Griffin (Amazing Adventures)

Manticore (Ghost Rider)

Will O the Wisp (Amazing Spider Man)

Tarantula (Amazing Spider Man)

Serpent Society

Sidewinder (Marvel-Two-In-One)

Diamondback II (Captain America)

Cottonmouth II (Captain America)

Rattler (Captain America)

Bushmaster II (Captain America)

Asp II (Captain America)

Black Mamba (Marvel-Two-In-One)

Death Adder (Marvel-Two-In-One)

Anaconda (Marvel-Two-In-One)

Coachwhip (Captain America)

Rock Python (Captain America)

Puff Adder (Captain America)

Cobra (Journey Into Mystery)

Black Racer (Captain America)

Copperhead II (Captain America)

DECEASED:

Grey Gargoyle (Thor)  
Mr. Hyde (Thor)

Elektra Natchios (Daredevil)

Dr. Stephen Strange (Strange Tales)  
Baron Karl Amadeus Mordu (Strange Tales)  
Egghead (Tales to Astonish)  
Baron Heinrich Zemo (Avengers)  
Namor (Sub Mariner)

Dr. Henry Pym (Tales to Astonish)

Janice Cord (Iron Man)

Logan aka: Wolverine (Uncanny X-Men)

Creed aka: Sabretooth (Iron Fist)

Cyber (Marvel Comics Presents)

Yukio (Uncanny X-Men)

Fer-De-Lance (Captain America)

Fourth Sleeper *Destroyed* (Captain America)

Swarm (Champions)

Jewel (Alias)

Shooting Star (Incredible Hulk)

Crime Buster I (Nova)

Underworld (Underworld)

Madame Hydra I/Viper II (Captain America)

Paul Destine/Destiny I (Sub Mariner)

Shinobi Shaw (X-Men)

DISBANDED:

Hulkbusters (Hulk)


	16. Act II Chapter 3:Guess What's For Dinner

Prologue 

Two months ago:

The man who had dubbed himself Kang the Conqueror strode the halls of the White House with an air of belonging. While others might have been impressed with the structure that played home to the most powerful man in the most powerful country in the world, it meant little to one who had traveled the ages of time. Besides, thanks to Kang's machinations, he actually was not as out of place as a time-traveler might be, in a fashion.

Someone passed Kang in the hallway and greeted him. "Hello, Senator."

Kang grunted as he tucked the folder he had brought with him under his arm. He barely registered the man as some faceless lawyer lobbyist. But the lobbyist's recognition of Kang's outward appearance meant his holographic projector was working. As far as the world was concerned, Senator Victor Timely from Wisconsin was walking past instead of the supreme ruler of Time itself.

While there had been a real Senator Timely, Kang had him quietly killed and his remains disintegrated, subsequently replacing him with a robotic duplicate. The man had been a reclusive bachelor with no family, so having the robot behave as though he were the real thing, using the same itinerary the senator had and mirroring every official decision the original had made meant no one picked up on any discrepancies between the two. Besides, the public tended to see politicians as caricatures rather than real people anyway, and people tended to see what they wanted to.

However, there were times when important matters, like now, that Kang needed to change things to his liking. To ensure success and make onsite decisions should the need arise, Kang took personal charge of the situation with a holographic projector and voice scrambler. Some things could not be left to chance.

Kang finally arrived at his destination: the Oval Office. The secretary greeted him in a far more sincere manner than the lobbyist had, informing him the president was eager to see him. Kang thanked the woman and was ushered into the office.

He entered, seeing the familiar face of the president standing next to his desk. The only other occupant in the room was a man sitting on a couch, someone Kang wasn't familiar with. He was a handsome sort with blond hair and ice blue eyes. Even seated, Kang could tell he was a tall, and under his expensive suit was an impressive physique, something uncommon in the rather flabby, donut-permeated political circles of Washington D.C.. There was an air about the stranger that spoke of someone used to wielding power and giving orders rather than the usual type that curried favor from the president.

Kang had no more time to ponder the newcomer as the president greeted him. "Hello, Victor, wonderful to see you, as always."

The president moved forward. Kang met him halfway, returning the greeting with a handshake. "It's always an honor and a pleasure, Sir."

"I don't think you've had the honor of meeting my new personal aide, Jonathon Smith." The president indicated the man sitting at the couch.

"I prefer John." The man remained seated, nodding his head in the senator's direction. "A pleasure, Sir."

Now the man's presence made sense. Kang returned his attention to the president, "I was sorry to hear about Alex." Alex Jacoby had been the original personal aide to the president, dying only last week from a sudden heart attack. It had taken everyone by surprise, since he had seemed to be in perfect health.

"It was a tragedy, but we move on. John's quietly been at my side since the beginning, though. He was the obvious choice of successor."

Kang decided to cut through the casual conversation. Even a master of time could grow anxious. "Thanks for seeing me on such short notice."

"Anything for the one of the men who helped save the election," the president said.

Kang wondered if the man had any idea of what an understatement it was. Kang was the man responsible for the president being elected, which had been the original reason to doing away with the Senator Timely. It was all an attempt at changing 'The Tragedy'. In Kang's timeline, the American government had been indirectly responsible for the events that led up to it (as opposed to the Avengers, who were directly responsible), and there was a chance changing things in the U.S. might prevent the incident without making it so Kang never met her. It was ironic that killing the head of Kunou Industries before his children were born (and preventing the creation of the Iron Rose armor) changed everything so horribly he and his love would never meet (and prevent him from meeting her even as Kang in this timeline), but changing the leadership of the most powerful country on the planet had less of an effect on the event. Of course, the circumstances around Kang and his love had been somewhat insulated, and outside influences were limited, but it was such a fine line to tread it was frightening.

It had been a simple enough matter to shift the election in the favor of the current president. The election had been decided by such a small percentage that all it took was gaining a few thousand votes in one state to shift it. With a man of Senator Timely's influence whispering in a candidate's ear about concentrating more attention on the state, the man had gained the necessary votes to win. There was one curious thing, though. By Kang's estimation, with the additional campaigning the president had done, he should only have won by five thousand votes. Instead he had won a clear cut margin of twenty-thousand. Kang didn't like his estimations being off. The stakes were too high to allow mistakes of any kind.

However, Kang's fervent hope in doing an end run around The Tragedy had the exact opposite effect, and only served to reinforce the timeline. He wasn't certain of why that should be, his knowledge of time was not yet so vast that he could anticipate the tertiary results of his changes, but it had happened. But what had at first appeared to be a loss ended up netting him a positive gain, one that could make the difference in the elimination of the direct threat posed by the Avengers. Now Kang was Senator Timely, the man the president was beholden to. He had influence and power, and meant to use it, which was why he was in the Oval Office today.

The president's comment had caught Jonathon's attention. "He's the one that tipped us off about the need for additional campaigning?"

The president nodded amicably. "Yep."

The aide turned to Kang. "You have good instincts. I doubt I would have been able to conjure up the necessary number of votes if we had started even a week later."

The president cleared his throat.

"It was an excellent bit of campaigning," Jonathon clarified.

The president turned his attention to Kang once again. "Now, what did you need to see me about?"

At last. It was time to set the wheels of his latest plan into motion. "You read the file I sent you on the matter regarding the Hulk?"

The president turned less jovial. "Yes, terrible business, that. I'm outraged over the misuse of government funds over the whole Gamma Bomb program. The last thing the world needs is another kind of bomb. I'm thinking of having an inquiry on the matter."

Jonathon straightened up a bit. "That would be a bad idea, Sir. It was green-lighted by your predecessor, when you were vice-president. It would look bad for you to say things like this slipped by under your nose. Besides, it was Shaw Industries that won the contract for it, and he's also one of those enlightened about your potential as president and contributed heavily to you."

The president considered that. "Of course, an inquiry would be pointless now. The program was discontinued anyway. It's probably best to let the matter lie."

"And you read my recommendation?" Kang prodded. "The gamma readings on site match the ones taken by SHIELD. They clearly indicate this rampaging behemoth called the Hulk is clearly that muted pig. That means we're responsible for its creation."

"Yes," the president said dubiously. "Well, I think you might be overstating the dangers a bit. The formation of a hunt team to destroy him sounds like sending good money after bad, especially since I'm planning on trimming the military's bloated budget. Your suggestion would be counterproductive. Besides, he's spending his time in Japan. He's hardly our problem."

"Perhaps you should see this latest file from SHIELD, Sir." Kang handed the president the folder he had been carrying.

The president leafed through the folder, his eyes poring over the contents. Slowly his face took on a horrified expression.

Kang took it he had finally read the 'good part' of the documents. "As you can see, Sir, the Hulk completely destroyed that large hill and razed the surrounding terrain."

The president paled. "My god, the damage to the environment, it's like ground zero of an extinction level event. It'll take hundreds of years for that forest to grow back, and that hill will never return."

At that point Jonathon stood up and held a hand out, silently seeking the documents. The president handed them to him absent-mindedly, his eyes distant.

Kang moved things along. "It took him less than half an hour to do all of that damage. It's estimated he could annihilate an area the size of Yellowstone Park in less than forty eight hours."

Jonathon peered closely at one of the photos. "Weird, I'd swear that hill has eyes and a mouth."

The president scoffed. "Those are two odd rock formations and a cave, though I will agree they might every well be that poor hill's eyes and mouth in a metaphorical sense." He pondered the matter for another few seconds before deciding. "Gentlemen, it is clear to me that this monster represents a clear and present danger to the world's environment, and must be dealt with quickly and severely."

Jonathon added, "Worse, if this creature does cause some disaster, and its origins are traced back to us, it would be incredibly damaging to our reputation. And the press is always trying to dig up the next big scandal. I have no desire for this administration to be in the next one."

"It's a miracle something worse than this hasn't happened already," the president concluded. "Victor, you'll get a green light on this 'Hulkbusters' unit you're clamoring for.

"Thank you, Sir." It was nice to see hard work pay off, Kang thought to himself. Banner and Ross were sure to have something that could eradicate the Hulk. "There is a minor problem, though. We'll need permission to operate on Japanese soil."

The president considered that. "We'll need to give them something in return, especially since I have no desire to explain how we created this monster."

"How about that worldwide ban on whaling you've been trying to push through in the U.N.?" Jonathon suggested. "They've been complaining about that for a while now. If we agree to bury it, that might be the favor we need."

The president nodded. "Yes, that might work. And after the Hulk matter is taken care of, we'll bring it up again at a later time. Good plan. I actually have a close friend high up in the Diet, too. She can probably help grease the wheels as well, since she's of a like mind when it comes to environmental dangers like this creature. We'll have Gyrich as the liaison. He's been to Japan before, and he has the right sort of enthusiasm when it comes to situations with powered beings."

"Thank you, Sir. I'll get right on this." Kang started to head for the door when the intercom buzzed.

The secretary's voice said, "Mr. President, the Steve Rogers meeting is coming up. You told me to remind you."

The president hit the reply button. "Thank you, Jules."

That had caught Kang's attention. Steve Rogers was an elderly gentleman that had been in the public's eye since shortly after the end of World War II. Despite his sickly nature, he had become one of the most outstanding orators of his time. He was extremely outspoken about the state of the country, the military, and a thousand other topics. It was his sincerity that won people over, and even his most vehement critics never cast aspersions on his integrity. It would be the equivalent of accusing the Pope of being an atheist.

The only negative point in Roger's career was his son, Steven Rogers the Second, though becoming the one-time head of the racist Sons of the Serpent was a black mark indeed. Although even that was starting to be forgotten as his grandson, Steven Rogers the Third, was coming of age. Not only had the young man inherited his grandfather's character, but he had sculpted his body so perfectly that he had won a dozen Olympic gold medals, and possessed looks that had crowned him one of the most eligible bachelors in America.

"He has a meeting with you?" Kang asked.

"Sort of the reverse, actually. I'm having him come by. There's a nasty rumor he's considering running for office in the next election."

That would be cause for concern. People had been trying to get Rogers to run as a third party candidate for decades, but he had always balked. "What's caused the change in attitude?"

The president and Jonathon exchanged a meaningful look. "Let's just say his ideas of what constitutes freedom are antiquated. He's the sort that's mired in the past, and would have this country turn back into the fifties. Hardly the 'Golden Age' of America."

"He also has an unhealthy obsession with the military," Jonathon added. "Probably because he was 4-F'd when he tried to volunteer. It's sad, really, slavishly seeking approval from an organization that rejected him, even if it means ruining everything else in the process. It's like watching a Shakespearean tragedy in action. And he's so old, he could keel over at any time."

"Indeed," the president seconded. "It's time for this nation to move forward. Rogers is a relic of a bygone era that was appropriately abandoned. Still, he's the kind whose talk appeals to a certain segment of the population, and he might split the vote. The fate of this nation relies upon my winning, and we can't take a chance on Rogers muddying things up and letting someone else win. So I'm going to meet with him and reassure him that we share a good bit of common ground. I'm thinking of increasing veterans benefits. That might do it."

"I thought you were talking about slashing the military budget," Kang mentioned.

Jonathon said, "We'll just cut an additional one hundred million and then give it back as an increase in the benefits program."

"Just because we're slashing the military budget doesn't mean we don't care about our soldiers. We're just making them more efficient. Cutting the fat, so to speak," the president confirmed.

"Good luck, Sir." Privately Kang doubted it would work. Rogers was shrewd despite his age, but it mattered little. The time of The Tragedy would occur before the next election, and would be averted by then. After that, plans could be made regarding other things. For now, all of Kang's resources were committed to changing that one event.

The Hulkbusters would succeed. They would kill the Hulk and then everything would be right with the world. A couple of months and it would all be over.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Avenging Act II Chapter 3 Guess What's For Dinner

Any and all C+C appreciated. You can contact me at: the previous chapters and my other works are stored at:

Larry F's new address at:  
http/ And also Angcobra is now storing fics, at http/ At newer works at Mediaminer disclaimer: I don't any of the Marvel characters or other characters from the numerous animes which are within.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It was the dead of night as Kaori Makimura stared up at the cloudy skies, watching in anticipation as the helicopter with U.S. military markings landed on the abandoned school field in front of her. She waited anxiously as the helicopter touched down, and disgorged three passengers from its interior, ones that reeked of 'government agent'. The first two wore identical black suits and sunglasses, despite the fact it was ten o'clock at night. Each had an earpiece and wire leading to something inside the pockets of their suit jackets.

The third occupant's dark suit differed from the others, and his sunglasses had a greenish tint to them, evident even in the darkness. He held an air of authority as he approached Kaori with a purposeful stride. Eventually he stood before her.

"Uncle Peter!" Kaori cried out, and hugged the man.

"It's nice to see you, Kaori-chan," Henry Peter Gyrich said in lightly accented Japanese. "My, you've grown up. Let me look at you." He held her out at arm's length, staring at her a moment as a look of consternation crossed his features. It disappeared almost as quickly as it had arrived. "Kaori, I want you to know that you'll always be my goddaughter, no matter what your sexual orientation is."

A fist met his face. "I am not a lesbian!"

The two men standing guard a discreet distance behind Gyrich turned to one another. The first one said, "Told you so." The second one handed him several bills of money in response.

Kaori took a closer look at the men and realized they were identical twins. That put her on edge. She had bad luck with twins. "And who are you two gentleman?"

As one they twisted their necks, causing a cracking sound. "Our name is Mr. Smith, Miss Anderson."

"My name isn't Anderson," Kaori said, bewildered.

Through gritted teeth Gyrich spat out, "Their name is Jamie Madrox. All of them are, including the pilot. He's a mutant that likes making bad Matrix jokes and can create an exact duplicate of himself with a kinetic impact."

Jamie One said, "You da' man," to his partner.

Jamie Two said, "No, you da' man."

The two high-fived one another. A third one suddenly appeared between them. He said, "I'm da' man."

"Wow," was all Kaori could manage.

Gyrich continued. "He literally does the work of a hundred men."

"Yeah, but I only get paid like one," Jamie Two grumbled.

Jamie One walked up to Kaori. "Since you're not lesbian, like I said from the start," he shot a glare toward Jamie Two. "How about we go out dancing later? I can do a mean conga line."

"You will date my goddaughter over my dead body," Gyrich said in a tone that could chill ice. He returned his attention to Kaori. "All of the equipment was sent ahead of me and should be enroute to the rendezvous point. There isn't all that much. We only have one specialized squad for the actual field operation, some support personnel for the equipment, and a platoon of normal grunts to help with any manual tasks. How about things on your end?"

Kaori began leading him to a large structure next to field. "This whole school will be our base of operations. Space has been made in that gym over there. I'm actually just a liaison for the local police, though. I'm to keep our people out of the way of your people and the ministry's."

"Ministry?"

Kaori tensed up. "Yes, the overseers on our side aren't JSDF, like it was supposed to be. At the last minute they got pulled off and some outfit connected with the Ministry of Health and Welfare stepped in and took over everything."

"What the hell is the Ministry of Health and Welfare and how does it relate to a situation like the Hulk's?"

Kaori spoke in a low voice, "I didn't even know it existed until it was announced they were taking control of the situation. What I do know is they stink. They have some sort of pseudo-military unit called 'Hound', and believe me, they're good. They also operate real well together, like they've been under fire. Their boss is a creep named Irie Soyozoh. He's always smiling. He'd probably have the same smile on while sinking a knife in your back, and he's always got a half-dozen mean-looking bodyguards nearby at all times. Hulking brutes that could probably blow away little kids without blinking."

"I see," Gyrich said. "Smells like your government is up to something, too. But the job takes priority. Capture of the Hulk is our concern, not whatever it is your government wants out of the situation. Still, we'll keep our eyes open, just in case."

Kaori nodded in exasperation, opting to follow her more experienced godfather's lead. Also she tried eradicating the horrifying thought of the Saeba twins being able to replicate themselves like Madrox could. One Saeba was bad enough; two pushed her to the edge. One more and she'd lose it completely.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

It was an hour later when all of the Hulkbusters and their equipment arrived. Kaori watched as the men and materials were offloaded from the military trucks that had arrived from the nearby American base. As the material was set up, the heads of the American part of the operation met with their liaisons and Irie. Unlike Gyrich and Madrox, none of them could speak Japanese, so Kaori and the men with the ministry spoke English for their benefit.

The four top Americans walked up and formerly introduced themselves.

"I'm General Thaddeus Ross." The white-haired man with the lit cigar in his mouth spoke with an aura of command that could only have been gained from decades of being in authority. He introduced the other three men with him. "This is the leader of the attack squad, Major Glenn Talbot." A man in his late twenties with brown hair and thin mustache bowed formally. "This is the leader of the platoon that will help locate the Hulk on the ground, Sergeant John Walker." A large, blond-haired, blue-eyed man gave a cursory bow. "And this man in the civilian clothing is Dr. Banner. He's our resident expert on gamma rays and designed the portable tracking units we'll be using to locate the Hulk."

Kaori and Gyrich introduced themselves in turn. Once they were finished, Irie came to the forefront, smiling the entire time. "It's an honor to meet you, General Ross. I have heard much about you. While I have no doubt of your command abilities, I'm obligated to remind you that I'm in charge of the operation, since it's taking place on our country's soil, and my government would like to keep things quiet regarding this matter. But don't worry, I'll stay out of the way and leave this to the professionals. I know my limits, so have no fears on that regard."

Ross seemed taken off-guard. "Thanks. You're a refreshing man. In my government, cutting through bureaucratic nonsense means only having to wait five months instead of eight to get a paper clip for your base."

"You are our guest, and this Hulk matter is of serious concern to us," Irie assured him. "Of course, we want it low profile as well. We wouldn't want a major battle on Japanese soil. The Hulk has been in the center of several of those already."

Banner spoke up. "I think I can resolve the matter quietly, Sir."

"Shut up, Banner!" Ross snapped.

"Oh? I'm eager to hear what our resident expert has to say on the matter," Irie said. "Please, speak. I'm listening."

Banner began. "I have a portable device that I'm convinced can destroy the Hulk without any real risk to our men or the public. It's a portable Gamma Imploder I designed. In layman's terms, it'll bathe the Hulk in additional gamma rays, causing his cells to super-saturate and basically implode."

"It's untested and even you admitted it might not work," Ross snarled.

"But I'm convinced it will," Banner insisted.

"I'm not putting my men at risk with your crackpot scheme," Ross said.

Talbot interrupted. "Sir, we can resolve the matter using standard military tactics. The Mandroid Armor Stark built for us will be more than sufficient to destroy the Hulk, and given its tactical nature, will cause only very limited collateral damage."

Ross smiled satisfactorily at Talbot's suggestion.

Kaori watched the interplay between the three men. Ross seemed like a doting father over Talbot, while Talbot seemed to take great personal satisfaction in arguing with Banner, even going so far as to shoot the wan scientist a triumphant glare. Banner seemed cowed and said nothing further.

Irie spoke up. "I think we'll go with standard tactics, like the operation calls for. I do appreciate your input, Dr. Banner. If you come up with any other ideas, feel free to mention them. I'll keep an open mind."

"Thank you, Sir." Banner looked like a puppy that had just been kicked by its owner.

It was at that moment that a technician at a recently set up computer shouted, "Sir, we have a gamma contact!" All eyes turned to him.

"Already?" Ross asked. "I knew Hulk had popped up in Nerima several times, but I didn't think he'd show himself so soon. From what direction did he enter the area?"

The technician said, "Well, that's the funny thing, Sir. He appeared in the middle of the area, like he suddenly winked into existence. I don't have any explanation, Sir."

Ross turned to Banner. "Make sure that equipment is functioning right. Talbot, get those Mandroids off-loaded and suit up. We might be able to end this tonight and be on our way home with the Hulk in tow by morning."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Where is Hulk?" the Hulk bellowed.

It had not been a good week for him. After destroying Spragg, the Living Hill, he had wandered the countryside, trying to figure out how to meet his friends, the Avengers. During the third day of his musings, he had been attacked by robots. He had proceeded to smash them into pieces when a grey armored figure with a green cloak and hood flew in and destroyed the remaining ones. The newcomer introduced himself as Dr. Doom, and said he wanted the Hulk's help in overthrowing a power-mad robot that was bent on world domination. The Hulk had felt inclined to help, since everyone knew robots were bad. Every single one the Hulk had ever met had attacked him for no reason. There was also the fact that doctors were good, like Dr. Strange. Also, Doom had said he would teleport the Hulk to his friends afterwards. So the Hulk had agreed and allowed Dr. Doom to teleport him to some castle in the middle of the countryside. It was there that the evil robot named 'Chi' lay, and the Hulk was to destroy it and save humanity.

However, after smashing his way through the castle's defenses, the Hulk discovered Chi was not a robot at all, but a pretty girl (though not as pretty as the Hammer Girl). When the tiny girl on Chi's shoulder asked the Hulk what he was doing there, and he explained he was there to destroy the evil robot, Chi, the pretty girl began crying. She said Dr. Doom was a bad person that wanted to do bad things to Chi, who was a poor helpless girl that was trying to help the world.

That was enough for the Hulk. He went back outside, intent on destroying Dr. Doom's armor. Doom tried to trick him again by claiming Chi was the bad person, but the Hulk knew better. Bad guys were never cute little girls who cried when you threatened them.

Before the Hulk could beat Dr. Doom up, he was teleported away. That had brought him to his current state, standing in a back alley that didn't smell good.

The Hulk looked down and saw an old newspaper. He recognized the writing, if not the words it formed. That meant he was back in Japan. Home.

While a part of the Hulk wanted to find the Avengers, it had been a long day, and he was tired and hungry. He decided to sit down, and rest against a wall for a while, promising to shut his eyes only for a moment. Within seconds he was sleeping. And because he was sleeping, he missed the large figure that was concealed in the shadows nearby.

The one that moved toward him.

Xxxxxxxxxx

"We lost the signal, Sir," Banner informed the men clustered around the screen.

"Damn! The boys were almost ready to go out, too," Ross grumbled.

"It could have been a glitch," Banner reluctantly admitted. "That would explain why the initial reading spontaneously appeared in the first place."

"Probably, but we'll double check. Sergeant Walker!"

Walker approached and saluted. "Sir."

"Take a portable tracking device and check things out firsthand. If you spot the target, whatever you do, don't try to take him on. Just alert us. I don't want any dead would-be heroes."

"You can count on me, Sir."

Irie said, "You'll need a guide that can speak the language. Corporal Narusawa." Irie didn't yell, but his voice carried just as far as Ross' bellows. An attractive woman, about the same age as Walker, appeared. "Escort Sergeant Walker to the area the reading was taken and do a visual inspection of the scene. Report anything odd immediately."

It was at that moment something came together for Kaori. "That's the area where all those people have gone missing."

All eyes turned to her. "What's that?" Gyrich asked.

Kaori explained, "We've recently become aware of a number of disappearances in the area. Mostly homeless people."

"The homeless population in Japan is so insignificant as to be almost non-existent," Irie said in an almost teasing way.

"It's going from 'almost' to just plain 'non-existent'. There are some other people that have gone missing, too. Now that we've been investigating, it seems a lot of people aren't where they used to be anymore in the lower income sections of this area."

"Maybe the Hulk has something to do with it," Ross suggested.

"We'll be doubly aware then," Irie said. "Corporal, be advised as you go out."

"Sir." Narusawa saluted just as crisply as Walker had. "This way," she said to the American she escorted. He followed close behind.

Within minutes the pair rode a motorcycle to the scene, leaving all of their weapons, save a concealed pistol for each, behind. Walker seemed uncomfortable on the vehicle, and that he was being driven by a girl. He was relieved when they arrived in the area the signal had originated. They parked the motorcycle, and Walker removed the portable tracking device and set it up. While not having anywhere near the range of the master unit at the temporary headquarters, it could detect gamma ray levels within a thirty meter radius. He ran a check on it, radioed back to headquarters, then led the way down the alley.

"So your name is Johnny Walker?" Narusawa said in surprisingly good English.

"Yeah," Walker said idly.

"Red?"

"I ain't no commie!" Walker shouted.

"Was just joke," Narusawa assured him.

"I know. I just hear it all the time," Walker said.

"You seem tense," Narusawa mentioned.

"I ain't used to working with girls."

"I am not used to working with Americans," Narusawa countered.

"I don't mean anything by it, it's just my Ma and Pa were real traditional. Guys earned the money and women kept home and made babies. They didn't go around in combat boots and rifles."

"Ah, you would fit in well with Japan. That is 'traditional' here as well." There was a touch of bitterness in her voice.

Walker seemed to pick up on it. "You know what you're doing, though. I can tell by the way you move. They said you ain't regular military, though. What do you Hounds do?"

"Chase cats."

"Cats are so dangerous in Japan you need an automatic rifle to take them out?"

"Some breeds."

The thing about the response was that, to Walker's ears, it sounded like she was being serious. He supposed he lost something in the translation and distracted himself by looking down at the monitor. "I'm getting something odd here. While there's nothing strong enough to be the Hulk himself, I am picking up unusually high gamma readings. Not dangerous levels, but ten times greater than normal. I think they go off in a direction."

"We'll report back." Narusawa radioed back to their headquarters. The response was immediate. "We keep following the trail."

"Got it."

The two continued on past the alleyway.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Awareness returned to Ryouga as he felt himself being jostled in an up and down motion. Memories of his childhood marked it as the same movement he had felt when being carried by either of his parents, during those infrequent times when he saw them. Rather than being curled up in someone's arms, however, he found his face pointed toward the ground. He was slung over someone's shoulder, and Ryouga was no child, but a young man on a quest for vengeance.

Instinctively Ryouga used his arms to brace himself on the massive back of the person carrying him, and kicked off, wiggling out of the grasp around his legs. He used his arms to flip himself over the shoulder and to land on his feet with his back to his carrier's. He spun around more quickly than the other and caught a view of a massive hunchbacked form hidden beneath a tattered outfit of rags. The being had to be nearly three meters tall and weighed a quarter ton. As the figure turned, it wore a hood that hid its features deep within a veil of darkness.

"Who the hell are you!" Ryouga shouted.

Wordlessly the figure reached out with a massive hand, huge fattened fingers poking through what might have at one time been gloves, with clumps of dirt sticking to them. A rancid smell reached Ryouga's nostrils as the hand came near his face, and he resisted the urge to regurgitate.

Ryouga drew a fist back, but a cracked voice, barely recognizable as female, shouted, "Stop!"

The large figure did so, lowering its hand. Not sensing any impending violence, Ryouga turned to confront the speaker. Crone was the first word that came to mind, like some refugee from a Grimm fairy tale. She was dressed in a frayed purple cloak, old, but not in the state of disrepair that the clothing of the other figure was. Long wisps of thin white hair, many standing up on the top of her head, flowed down her back, and her face was a crag of crinkled lines. Rheumy eyes gazed at him, and as she opened her mouth, only three teeth, two on the top and on the bottom, were visible.

"Please, please kind sir, don't be trying to beat up my Kenny. He's a good boy, he is. I asked him to grabs you, since them awful soldiers boys was comin'. Kenny found you sleeping it off in an alley. Didn't think it proper to leave a poor defenseless lad like you in theirs hands, so we was takin' you back to our home. No harm. We didn't mean you no harm."

The quiet desperation struck a chord in Ryouga, and he paused to take in his surroundings. From all appearances he had been carried to a warehouse that had been abandoned sometime back in World War II. There was a large empty space that dominated this floor, with every kind of debris imaginable littering the length of it. Many holes could be seen in the flooring, some nearly two meters wide, that led to the level below. Mildew and rot filled the air, and Ryouga's stomach roiled again. This was no decent home, not even for a rat.

"Who are you?" Ryouga asked.

"My name's Yumi, it is. And that's my son, Kenny. Come here, Kenny."

Kenny shuffled over to his mother, waiting at her side like an obedient, mute dog.

It wasn't much of an explanation, but looking this pair over, it might be the best they could manage. Something she said earlier caught his ear. "What were you saying about soldiers?"

"Soldier boys coming. They hunt us all the time, all because my Kenny's different. It ain't his fault he is, Mister. No one would want to be the way he is. But 'cause he's different, we keeps getting hunting. First by the townspeople in our fishing village, then by everyone we meet. People don't like it when other people are different, they don't. They hates what's different and drive it away. But it ain't my Kenny's fault for being different. It ain't."

Ryouga still couldn't make out Kenny's features very well, but what little of his flesh that poked out through the ruins of his clothing looked darkened, almost charred. Maybe he had been horribly burned, or was deformed, or was some kind of mutant. Maybe he was a burned, deformed, mutant. Whatever he was, he was a creature to be pitied, not feared.

Ryouga knew what it was like to be different. He had always been stronger and tougher than the other kids. And there was his terrible sense of direction. And he was shy, especially around pretty girls. Combined, his characteristics had made him a social outcast. And then along came Ranma, who was the epitome of all Ryouga was not. He was even a better fighter that had picked on Ryouga mercilessly, just like people picked on poor, hideous Kenny. Probably the only difference was Ranma hadn't stolen Kenny's bread every day for a month.

Lately Ryouga's sense of isolation had been worse. He was waking up in strange, far off lands with no memory of how he had gotten there. And his clothing kept getting shredded and he ended up in torn purple pants. He felt even more harassed and picked on, even if no one had either harassed or picked on him in a while. He was so out of sorts that he didn't even feel all that angry at life anymore, as though most of his anger was somehow being drained out of him. Hell, he wasn't even that angry at Ranma anymore. Whenever he thought of his mortal enemy, he just couldn't get worked up over it like he used to.

And compared to Kenny, Ryouga had it easy. At least he could walk around in the normal world. But this poor guy couldn't even go out in public. It really put things in perspective.

A sound came from one of the holes. Kenny moved surprisingly nimble for a man his size. He peeked down the hole, and then drew back.

Yumi moved toward the edge quietly and looked down. "Them soldiers is here," she whispered in fear. "They're going to take my Kenny away from me."

It took Ryouga all of two seconds to decide. "I'll take care of them."

"You will?" Yumi asked. Even Kenny cocked his head quizzically in his direction.

"I know how to fight," Ryouga assured her. "You two stay out of the way. This shouldn't take me more than a few seconds."

Ryouga looked through the bottom of the hole, keeping as close to the edge as he could without giving away his position. There were only two people dressed in military uniforms. Surprisingly, one was a gaijin who had some sort of box in his hands. The other was a girl. Ryouga didn't like hitting girls, but sometime it had to be done. Besides, girls tended to have little reluctance when it came to smacking men around, when they felt there was just cause.

Once they passed by, Ryouga leaped down through the hole. He tried landing quietly, but the weakened flooring groaned under his sudden weight, threatening to break. Both soldiers turned in surprise.

Ryouga was fast, kicking the foreigner hard in the gut. The blow landed solidly, and the solider dropped the device he had. Ryouga waded in with a hard right to the man's jaw, sending him crashing limply to the floor.

Ryouga turned, hoping to talk the woman into surrendering. Instead he was met with a boot to the face, rattling his jaw. Spinning gracefully, she switched legs and hit him in the stomach with a thrust kick right into his solar plexus, driving the wind out of him. She chopped him in the back of his unprotected neck, but his durability won out, and he managed to lash out with a fist, driving the woman back.

"What are you? A phantom cat?" she asked.

Ryouga was about to deny it, not even knowing what a ghost cat had to do with anything, when he saw a form come swinging down from the hole. Kenny dangled from one long, almost simian-like arm that clung to the edge of the hole, and lashed out with his feet. It was only a glancing blow to the woman's head, but it sent her to the floor. Rendering her just as unconscious as the first man.

"Kenny thought you could use the help," Yumi said from above.

Kenny reached up, cradled the frail woman in his arms, and landed on the floor. Yumi looked the two over. "Good, they're still alive. No harm done, then."

Ryouga said, "I doubt if they were alone. I think they were looking for something. Probably you. You two had better get out of here."

Yumi nodded. "We'll just grab a few things and go. You'd better go now, just to be on the safe side."

"I should help," Ryouga insisted.

"You've done more than enough. Kenny and me don't want you getting mixed up in our business. Bad enough you had to do what you did to these two. We'd never forgive ourselves if you got into trouble."

"If you're sure."

"We are. You run along. Me and Kenny will be going soon."

Ryouga turned to go, then realized something. "How do I get out?"

Yumi said, "We're only on the second floor. There's a stairwell behind that pillar there. You go down one floor, then exit. Any direction you go will lead out. Whatever you do, don't try going down to the basement. Them stairs is crumbling bad and you'll fall through for sure. Go out the first door you come to and you'll be fine."

"Right. Good luck. I hope you find some place were soldiers can't find you." For some reason, that desire struck a chord in Ryouga, even if he had never been chased by soldiers. He waved at them and turned to go.

Ryouga was relieved to find the door to the stairwell on the first try. That it was the only door still on its hinges on the level helped greatly. He entered the stairwell, closing the door behind him, and proceeded to walk downward.

It was as he walked down that an errant thought occurred to him. Yumi had told him to exit through the first door he came to, except the first door he came to was the one he had entered, wasn't it? Did that one count and she meant to go down one floor and out, or was it some kind of complicated way of getting out? She probably meant two doors. So he would count off two doors, and go out that way.

Ryouga had come to that conclusion when he realized he had run out of stairs. He didn't think he had passed a door on the way down, except he had to have passed at least the first door. He just hadn't been paying attention to if he had already passed door number two or not. So was this the door he was supposed to go out or not?

Ryouga shrugged. He would take this door, and if it didn't lead out, he would choose a different one. There could only be so many doors in a building, after all. Course decided, he opened what he hoped was the exit. There were no quick answers, as beyond the doorway was only pitch blackness, not a hint of light anywhere. Part of Ryouga wanted to leave and go back up, but he'd look incredibly stupid if he went up the stairs and ended up right back where he had started. That last thing in the world he wanted was to be lugged around by Kenny again. It was better to move on ahead, and if he couldn't find a way out, go up one level and try again.

Ryouga walked through the darkness, becoming aware of an odd scent in the air. It was even worse than the upper level had been. It took a moment to recall where he had smelled it before: when Kenny had reached out to grab him.

Maybe this was Kenny's living chamber. If so, he needed a bath in the worst possible way. Ryouga continued walking until something snapped under his foot. He cursed both the darkness and his clumsiness. He hoped it wasn't something valuable of Kenny's he had broken. Not that Kenny looked like he had anything valuable. But one never knew.

Crouching down, Ryouga felt around for what he had broken, hoping he could repair or replace it. As his hand played across something round, Ryouga picked it up and began feeling it, trying to figure out what it was by sense of touch alone. The top was rounded, but the bottom uneven. There seemed to be two holes on it on one side, and strands of something sticking to it.

He was still trying to figure out what was in his hands when the room suddenly filled with a dim illumination that came from the stairwell. Ryouga saw that what he had in his hands was a human skull, stray bits of flesh and hair still clinging to it.

"Ah!" Ryouga dropped the skull to the floor, cracking it. He turned to look, and in the dull illumination, he saw bones scattered everywhere. Right next to him was a knee-high pile of skulls, at least three dozen in number, if not more.

"I told you not to come here."

Ryouga turned toward the source of the light. Yumi stood partially revealed in the yellow glow, the wizened crone holding a cracked oil lantern in front of her. Standing several meters away from her was Kenny, both the military people slung over his shoulders like sacks of rice.

"You shouldn't have ought to done that, Mister. I told you not to come down to the basement."

Ryouga's heart began to race. "It was an accident. I have a bad direction sense. Maybe I should leave." He made no motion to head toward the doorway, not with the now sinister pair between him and any sanctuary beyond.

"Now it's too late. We liked you, Mister, really we did. You helped us, and we were real appreciative, but now it's too late. You'll tell others and they'll blame Kenny again, like they always do. It's not his fault, his condition. We was poor, and his father was dead, and fishing was bad. He found it washed up on the shore and thought it was just a fish. He didn't know it was a mermaid, not with its top missing. Wasn't right it made him into what he is, and gave him an appetite for people. It's hard on us, it is. Always having to move before people find out. It's just not right."

Ryouga had heard legends of what happened to people that devoured mermaid's flesh. Some said it gave the eater immortality, while others said it only brought death. He had also heard it changed people into monsters. Since he didn't believe in mermaids, there was no reason to wonder which of the legends were true, though by all appearances it was the last.

"Perhaps if you go to the police they'll help Kenny find a cure," Ryouga suggested, peering into the gloom, praying he could find an alternate exit.

"They'll just lock him up when it ain't his fault. No, it's better this way. Kenny was going to have these two as a meal before we left, but he's got a hearty appetite. Three will keep him happy for a while." She nodded at the misshapen form of her son

Kenny allowed the soldiers to slump to the floor, then charged Ryouga. Even he was startled by the burst of speed from someone so large. The top of the cloak fell away, revealing the face of Kenny. It was hideous, large and lumpy, with scales, large fish eyes, and a hole where his nose should have been. Not a strand of hair was left, on his head, and only hunger existed in his jaundiced-colored eyes.

Ryouga only had a chance to take a half-step back when the cursed-human was upon him. Kenny said nothing, given the shape of his head and neck perhaps he was incapable of creating human sounds. His mouth worked fine, though, as he opened his maw so large it appeared his jaw must have dislocated. Two rows of centimeters long teeth sank deep into Ryouga's shoulder, shooting fires of pain that nearly consumed his consciousness and made him roar in agony.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Yumi watched her son go to work. He had a hearty appetite, her boy did. He'd eat all three of the meddlesome people, and then they could move on to somewhere else. Maybe Kyoto. There were lots of people there. Who would miss a few? One thing Japan didn't suffer from was a shortage of people. She was doing the country a favor, when one thought of it. Kenshiro was a good boy, he was.

Then she saw something peculiar. Kenny had stopped for some reason. By now he should have bitten through the boy's shoulder and worked his way down to the torso. He had wonderful teeth. No need for a dentist, not for him. But instead he ceased chewing for some reason and remained still.

Then he started to rise up. Yumi wondered what was going on when she realized he was rising up until his feet were dangling off the floor. Then she saw it, the huge green hand reach up from under his arm to grab Kenny by his neck. The arm was huge, even bigger than her Kenny's, and the cries from the boy became deeper bellows of rage.

The arm pried Kenny from his perch on the boy, and Yumi saw the huge green beast that now had her son in its powerful grip. Her heart trembled, just like it had when she realized what her son had eaten on that windswept beach so many months ago.

The beast roared, "You try to eat Hulk! You hurt Hulk! You make Hulk bleed! Now Hulk will make you bleed!" He threw Kenny across the length of the room where his body collided with a pillar that buckled under the force of the impact.

"Kenny!" Yumi cried out, not understanding what was going on, other than some terrible monster was trying to kill her child.

The mermaid's curse left Kenny with the stamina and power of a dozen men. He rose back to his feet and charged the Hulk, intent on finishing his meal.

Eyes rimmed in red from pain and rage, the Hulk drew back his fist and struck the incoming mass of flesh hard in the stomach with an uppercut. The blow sent Kenny sailing back where he had originally been tossed, this time impacting with the ceiling. He bounced off and back to the ground where he lay motionless for several seconds. Then he began to rise again.

"Hulk will smash stupid monster!" the emerald behemoth promised.

It was not to be as the combination of the loss of pillar and impact to the ceiling proved too much for the ages-old structure to bear. Three quarters of the ceiling came down upon Kenny, crushing him under tons of rubble since that part of the basement extended to a fallen in part of the warehouse. Metal rods and concrete stuck up from the pile of debris, but there was no movement other than the slow settling of dust.

"Kenny!" Yumi shouted, running over to pile of concrete rubble

Xxxxxxxxxxx

The Hulk watched the pile of rubble intently, wanting to smash the monster that had hurt him so severely. Though only with his good arm, since the wounds the monster had given him were still bleeding. He looked down at the holes still there. Never had he been hurt like this before. He wanted to punch the creature again and again until there was nothing left.

So intent was the Hulk on wanting revenge that he was unaware of the activity on the surface until lights shined down upon him. He looked up and was perplexed by what he saw. Six giant armored figures, each nearly four meters tall, looked down on him from edges of the hole. The figures had oversized forearms and lower legs, and cables led from those parts into a huge hump on their backs, though they remained upright. They weren't robots, however, as each one had a clear faceplate, and behind them were the faces of men.

Xxxxxxxxx

Major Glenn Talbot had led his five men to the site where they had received the last transmission of Sergeant Walker and his Hound guide. When they had failed to report in, General Ross feared the worst and ordered Talbot to lead the squad of Mandroid Armor out to locate the soldiers, low profile be damned.

That was the way Talbot wanted it. He finally had a chance to be the hero and impress Betty Ross, the general's daughter. It had been love at first sight for Talbot, though he quickly learned she seemed to only have eyes for that wimp Bruce Banner. But that was because she hadn't met a man like Glenn Talbot. Once she saw what a true man of action was capable of, downing that walking disaster called the Hulk, she'd fall for him in an instant. Then he'd show her what real men were capable of and why nerds like Banner weren't worth giving the time of day.

The sound of something collapsing had drawn the squad's attention. They had raced as fast as they could to the source of the noise, only to discover a scene out of some horror movie. It was a pit full of human remains, dozens of them, some of them showing signs of having been eaten, with a huge, roaring monstrosity in the center of the charnel house. The Hulk looked even more dangerous and horrifying in person, especially when surrounded by so many dead bodies.

Talbot made certain that image was being transmitted back to the base. "Can you see this, General?"

"We see it. My god, we see it," Ross said.

Kaori's voice came over in the background. "The Hulk was responsible for all the disappearances. He's a serial killer of some kind! He has to be killed!"

Another voice, much more official in tone, came over. "This is Soyozoh. You have my permission to use lethal force in dealing with the Hulk."

"Thank you, Sir," Talbot said. He was about to order the men to open fire on the Hulk when he noticed in elderly woman nearby. It looked like she was trying to dig her way out to escape the Hulk. It was probably his latest intended victim. Well, he had no intention of allowing her to be devoured by that monster.

As Talbot considered how to get the Hulk out, the creature did the job for him. While he had heard stories of the Hulk's prodigious leaps, the major was unprepared for how far and fast the monstrosity could go with barely tensing his legs. He sailed up and out of the pit, landing a good twenty meters away. The behemoth turned, rage evident on his features. Talbot wondered if, after he killed the Hulk, that look would still be on his face. He would love to keep the head and mount it on his wall next to his other trophies. The Hulk was just a mutated pig, after all.

"As we practiced, men," Talbot ordered. The men ran around the Hulk, surrounding him in a circle, yet each was mindful not to stand directly across from one of the others.

Talbot wanted to open fire, but protocol dictated he try to end things peacefully. "Surrender, monster, and submit yourself to United States authority."

The Hulk bellowed, "Stupid metal man with big hands, Hulk not monster. Hulk stop monster."

That sounded like a refusal to Talbot. Everything was recorded for posterity. Now he would have a clear conscience in destroying the Hulk. "Unit's 2 and 5, maneuver D4."

"Roger!" the men operating the Mandroids shouted. Each of the men raised their metal gauntlets and opened their hands, pointing them in the Hulk's direction. From their index fingers thick cables shot out. Unit 2 snared the Hulk's good arm, while the other wrapped one around the Hulk's left ankle.

"Now!" Talbot ordered. Thousands of amps shot through the cable and into the Hulk, making his body twitch and hair stand on end. It was proving too easy.

The Hulk stopped twitching long enough to brace his feet and tense up his good arm. Then he jerked the snared arm, whipping the Mandroid around as though he weighed one pound instead of a thousand. The Mandroid went sailing into the air, colliding with the other one that was electrocuting the Hulk. The impact caused the cable around the Hulk's arm to snap and the one around his leg stopped conducting electricity into his body, going slack. The Hulk stepped out of cable and turned to confront his remaining attackers.

"Stupid metal men are just as bad as robots! Everyone attacks Hulk for no reason! Now Hulk will smash!"

Now Talbot felt the first vestige of fear creep along his spine. The Hulk hadn't been affected by the electricity in the slightest. But years of training and cool professionalism took over. "Heat beams! We'll boil the blood in his veins!"

A wide beam emanated from a slit on the top of the heads of the Mandroids, each striking the Hulk. Even one of the fallen units had recovered enough to add his heat beam to the onslaught. Despite the continuous nature of the attack, the Hulk simply stood there, growing madder by the second.

"Stupid metal men think making Hulk sweat will stop him! Nothing can stop the Hulk!" He began to move toward Talbot.

The major jerked slightly, his beam moving across one of the Hulk's shoulder. The beast stopped moving forward and roared out in pain. It took Talbot a moment to realize why his beam had affected the Hulk when none of the others had. "He's wounded in the shoulder, men. Concentrate energy weapons on that shoulder. Rapid fire!"

They disengaged the heat beams and went with the more powerful energy weapons built into their hands. Every Mandroid opened up with everything they had. Now the Hulk was put on the defensive, trying to protect his injured shoulder from the raging fire. But the wound inflicted by Kenny's mouth was too wide for even the Hulk's large hand to cover, and several of the discharges hit the cuts directly, causing him to become dizzy with pain.

"Close in and finish him off!" Talbot ordered.

The Mandroids started to do so, pouring the fire from their hands at their target.

Then a shield whizzed through the air and hit Unit 2's in the hands, striking one and bouncing off to hit the other, sending his blasts awry.

A flying hammer impacted with Unit 3, sending him sailing through the air, his flight arrested upon crashing into a building.

A pair of repulsor rays struck Unit 4, knocking him off his feet.

Two arrows struck Unit 5 in the hands, each exploding and disrupting his firing capabilities.

Talbot and the remaining Mandroid discontinued their attack and turned to face the new threat. Standing boldly before him on a nearby pile of rubble, the major identified the entire roster of the Avengers, save for one female in a suit of power armor of some kind, one much smaller than the Mandroids. Since the large, bulky armor of the Iron Rose wasn't present, he assumed this was a new version of the armor. Lighter by far than its predecessor and a mix of grey and black instead of jet black, it looked too slender to be very powerful.

Captain Japan caught his returning shield as the Avengers moved apart. He said, "Hey, pal, when you attack one Avenger, you attack us all, and there aren't anywhere near enough of you to keep your asses from getting kicked."

Computers in the Mandroid's armor translated the youth's speech. The joke was on this impudent upstart. He wasn't the hero, here, Talbot was. The major activated his speaker to translate his own words into Japanese. "We are an elite U.S. military unit sanctioned by your government to apprehend the Hulk and remand him into our custody. He's wanted in connection to the serial killing of over two dozen Japanese citizens. Interference with us is the same as breaking the law. Now stand aside."

"Yeah, right," Captain Japan said. "Even if what you said is true, and I doubt it, it looked to me like you were trying to kill our big green buddy instead of capturing him. And while the oversized galoot has a bad temper, he ain't no killer. So why don't you back off and let us handle the situation before things get painful for you?"

This snot-nosed punk's attitude rubbed Talbot wrong in every way imaginable. Where did he get off thumbing his nose at authority, especially when Talbot and his men were armed to the teeth while he was just some glorified acrobat with a shield? A quick look showed the major that his men had recovered from the Avengers sneak attack. Now the fight would be on even ground, and Talbot had faith in the state-of-the-art technology Tony Stark had provided.

"Disable the Avengers, men!" Talbot ordered.

The Avengers separated, preventing the Mandroids from concentrating their fire on them as a group.

The fight was on.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The man in Unit 2's Mandroid armor smirked as he opened fire on Captain Japan, who was stupid enough to actually charge him. While the youth was fast, there was nothing he could to the armor. It was composed of a titanium-osmium alloy which could take a rocket at point blank range and only have its surface marred. Though try as he might, the solider couldn't seem to hit the captain, even firing at full automatic.

Darting and weaving through the unrelenting fire, Captain Japan was suddenly standing in front of the Mandroid, bringing his shield up in front of him. Like some hunk of metal that would stop a full power energy blast. The youth was a century too late. Maybe destroying the shield would convince the hero he was totally outclassed.

Unit 2 put his hands up flush with the shield and fired at point blank range. Captain Japan remained where he was, but the back blast from the concussion traveled up the barrels the discharge had come from. It went up the Mandroid's arms, blowing the metal off and causing the suit to shut down from the catastrophic damage it had suffered. It froze up, standing like a statue.

Captain Japan smirked at the man behind the faceplate. "Sorry, Pal, I gotta do it." He placed one arm against the armor and pushed.

The Mandroid fell over with an audible thump.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Unit 6 found himself facing off against the Goddess of Thunder. Now this was a chick he'd love to go hand-to-hand with, and do a whole lot of other things to as well. "You'd better give up," he warned. "This unit is designed to withstand lightning strikes. There isn't anything you can do."

"Thou thinkist the tinkerings of man can overcome the full fury of the storm? Think again." Thor tapped her hammer to the ground. A lightning bolt five times greater than any normal one struck the Mandroid in the top of the head. When the flash of light cleared, all could see the now smoldering singed black remains of the giant, inoperable hunk of metal with its pilot now trapped inside.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Unit 3 squared off with the hovering Iron Rose in her new streamlined armor. "Get ready to have your ass kicked, Avenger. You're dealing with a twenty million dollar, top-of-the-line power armor built by America's greatest mechanical genius. There's no way that rice burner you're wearing can stand up to it."

The Iron Rose replied, "While I will concede Stark's inventive genius might rival my employer's own, I'm afraid that what you're wearing is a mass-produced, cost-efficient production model, while my own armor is a unique, highly customized, prohibitively expensive armor, which means I can afford to have the absolute best of every piece of technology there is, all of it handmade by the person who developed it."

Unit 3 suddenly felt very uneasy. He tried to prove the Iron Rose wrong by firing upon her. However she proved far too fast and nimble, deftly evading his energy blasts in an elaborate aerial ballet. She literally flew circles around him, lashing out everywhere with her repulsor beams and causing warning lights to flash all across his readouts. Then she became creative, using lasers, tasers, and a dozen other exotic weapons, as though she were testing out their capabilities, on him. Within minutes his armor was reduced to a useless hunk of metal.

Silently he swore the next time he bought a car, it would be a Honda.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Unit 5 found himself confronted by a red garbed man wearing a devil's mask. He also found himself laughing contemptuously. "I know you. You're Daredevil, the powerless superhero who hides stuff in his pants. You go ahead and throw your billy clubs, chains, and whatever useless crap you got stuffed in there. I'm going to find me a real superhero."

"How about I try this?" Daredevil reached into his sleeves and pulled out in object.

Unit 5 laughed even harder. "Oh yeah, a water balloon. Now that's dangerous. I guess I'd better surrender before you make me rust solid."

Daredevil lobbed the balloon at Unit's 5 faceplate. It exploded against the plastic, blackening the view so the man inside couldn't see anything. "Paint? You think that can stop me? I got heat sensors, you know."

Unit 5 switched them on just in time to make out Daredevil throwing a small metal can at him. Unit 5 tried to block the can, but it slipped past his arms and hit him in the face, where it broke and splattered some wet substance over him.

"You already messed up by windshield," the soldier said.

Daredevil pulled out a book of matches, lit one up, and threw it at the Mandroid. Instantly his sensor unit was covered in flame, turning his view an unrelenting red.

Blinded, Unit 5 was unaware of the archer that had made her way behind him until four blast arrows impacted at his shoulders and knees, disabling all of his limbs, leaving him to collapse on his stomach, unable to move or see.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Unit 4 found himself confronted by twenty feet of human being in the form of Giant Man. While the Mandroid armor made Unit 4 extremely tall, there was something terribly disturbing about seeing someone so proportionately huge.

"I feel extraordinarily Lilliputian," Unit 4 said to himself. He then activated his external speakers. "You know, shooting you isn't going to be a problem. I don't think I could miss if I tried."

"How about shooting me instead?"

Unit 4 couldn't locate the source of the voice, until he saw a small girl with wings out of her back hovering no more than a handful of centimeters in front of his faceplate. She waved at him, smiling pleasantly.

"You're got power blasts, don't you?" Unit 4 asked.

"Yes," Wasp answered.

It now occurred to him that her smile wasn't all the pleasant, at least not as far as he was concerned. He knew enough about the specs of the Mandroid armor to know the faceplate was the weak point, and that at such a close range he couldn't do anything to the Wasp that wouldn't cause him considerable damage as well.

"I have no interest in wasting the taxpayers' money in trashing this armor." He held his hands up in surrender.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

While the others had squared off against their opponents, Talbot had decided to continue with his primary directive. The Hulk was wounded, and if he was killed, the Avengers would lose their reason for fighting. He had to finish the Hulk fast on the offhand chance his men were defeated and the entire roster of the Avengers fell upon him. Deciding to risk it all, Talbot disengaged the safety limiters on his Mandroid armor. It would flood all of his systems with a hundred and seventy-five percent of their normal power, but any amount of time over five minutes would overload the armor, rendering it a twenty-million dollar paperweight. But stopping the Hulk was all that mattered, and Talbot knew he could finish him off under the time limit.

The Hulk was only just starting to recover when Talbot hit him with a running tackle, knocking the wind out of the behemoth and carrying him away from the combat zone. An interruption from one of the Avengers was the only thing that could save the Hulk now, and once they were out of sight, they would have their hands full with the other members of the unit. Even if the men failed to defeat the superheroes, it wouldn't matter. They just needed to slow the Avengers down long enough for Talbot to complete his mission.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Those idiot heroes! The Hulk would be dead now if it wasn't for their meddling!" Kaori shouted at the viewscreen as the battle raged on.

"They do tend to get in the way," Gyrich seconded. "They need to be controlled, if not banished outright. It's why vigilantism cannot be allowed to run rampant. Super powered beings have a place in the world, but as tools, not rabble rousing waves of destruction."

"Bah, give me military men any day," General Ross grumbled. "You'll see. Talbot will still be able to stop the Hulk. He's one of the best I have."

A burst of static came over the radio. The communications officer manning the equipment said, "Sir, I think you should hear this. It's from Sergeant Walker and Corporal Narusawa."

"Put it on," Ross ordered.

A loudspeaker burst out in Narusawa's voice. "Sir, I can positively confirm that the Hulk is not responsible for any of the deaths here."

"What's that?" Ross shouted.

"Walker and I discovered the true culprit. It was some sort of cannibalistic mutant. I had confirmation from the mutant's mother, who had no knowledge we could hear her. It would have eaten us if it wasn't for the Hulk, Sir."

"Well, that certainly muddies the waters," Irie said. He turned to Ross. "Tell your men to stand down. I suspect the Hulk is the victim here, rather than the victimizer."

Ross reluctantly nodded. "All units, this is General Ross speaking. Stand down. Repeat, stand down."

"I've almost finished off the Hulk," Talbot's voice declared.

"You have your orders, Major."

On screen, the fight between the Hulk and Talbot continued.

"Stand down, Major!" Ross repeated. "Stand down!"

"He seems to be caught up in the heat of battle," Irie said idly.

"Shut down the Mandroid," Ross ordered one of the nearby technicians.

"It can't be shut down when the safety limiters are off, Sir," the technician informed him.

"Damn!" Ross pounded his fist into the control panel. "Banner, do you have any ideas?" When there was no response, the general began looking around. "Banner? Damn it, man where'd he go? "

The others shrugged.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Talbot turned off his radio. One of the Avengers had obviously hacked into the military's radio frequency and impersonated the general's voice. Most likely it was the Iron Rose. Major Glenn Talbot was not some mindless automaton. He knew what he had seen. The Hulk was a menace that needed to end, and the glory would belong to Talbot.

Now clear of the Avengers, Talbot decided on the best way to end things. While the Hulk was still weakened, he was vulnerable. Still carrying the Hulk, the Mandroid stopped running and locked his arms behind the behemoth's back, pinning the Hulk's arms to his sides. Once the fingers were perfectly aligned, there was a whirring of motors and shifting of metal as the fingers linked up, creating a seamless band of armor. As they locked into place the hydraulic systems in the Mandroid activated. The process was complete, the Mandroid's arms had basically turned into a hydraulic-powered vice capable of bending anything short of adamantium steel. No matter how durable the Hulk was, his spine would break in a matter of seconds.

The Hulk bellowed in pain. "You're hurting Hulk!"

"No, I'm killing you, monster" Talbot corrected.

The veins began to pop along the Hulk's forehead and arms. "Hulk… not… monster!"

Talbot couldn't believe his armor's readings. Even with the hydraulic system in its hyperactive state, the Hulk was threatening to overload it.

"No, you can't be that strong!" Talbot protested.

"Hulk can be that strong, because Hulk is the… strongest… one… there… is!" And with a tearing of metal, the Hulk broke free, every one of the Mandroid's fingers shattering into useless stumps.

The Hulk fell to the ground gasping, the exertion of overcoming the Mandroid taxing even his might, and leaving him more vulnerable than ever.

Something seemed to snap inside Talbot as he stared in disbelief at the ruins of his armor's hands. Nothing could be that powerful. Nothing should be that powerful. It was wrong on some fundamental level. Flesh should not be able to triumph over technology, not like this.

The reptile portions of the Major's brain took over. He saw the blood pouring anew from the Hulk's shoulder, the titanic effort ripping his wounds wider. While the Mandroid's hand weapons were ruined, the same could not be said for the others hidden in its gauntlets. A long blade extended from a recess in the wrist joint. Talbot lunged forward with it, burying it halfway into one of the wounds.

To anyone not in Talbot's animalistic frenzy, the cry of pain loosed by the Hulk would have made them draw back. In the major's state of mind, it had an effect like blood to a shark, and only made him try to drive more of it in. "Die, Hulk! Die!"

"No!" The Hulk cried out, a fist smashing solidly into the armor. Rage and pain fueled the blow, and the blade broke off in the Hulk's skin as the Mandroid was sent sailing through the air like a missile, slamming back first through the wall of one of the many deserted buildings in the area. Mortar and concrete weren't enough to stop his Hulk issued flight, only to deflect it as the armor shot along the ground, leaving a huge groove in its wake as it peeled off the first six inches of soil before coming to a halt.

Talbot was dazed, something that shouldn't have been possible with the Mandroid's protection. He tried to get up, tried to force the armor to obey his commands, but it refused. He ran a diagnostic and saw that the power unit in the hump on the Mandroid's back had suffered critical structural integrity failure. Then every system on board went out, and the Major could only look through the faceplate.

"Damn you!" Talbot raged, his mind going through a thousand different scenarios on what he would do to the Hulk once he was free. Then he became aware of an increase in the temperature inside the armor. Smoke began to fill the airtight cockpit. He tried using the manual release, but discovered the mechanism had shattered in the crash, rendering it non-functional. Lacking that, the only way to exit the Mandroid was a team of men armed with cutting torches to burn him out, and the nearest ones were nearly a mile away.

"No, I'll die!" Talbot shouted through the armor.

The cries attracted the attention of someone nearby.

The Hulk began walking forth.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Bruce Banner arrived at the scene just in time to see the Hulk lumbering toward the fallen Mandroid. While Talbot had made his contempt for Banner known from the outset, the doctor had ignored it for the most part. He was used to being picked on since his college days. He didn't get angry. Not anymore. Becoming angry reminded him of his father. Made him like his father. Better to keep the anger bottled up, ignore it until it went away.

Besides, there was always Betty to think about. Beautiful Betty, who, against all reason, was attracted to the wimp Bruce Banner. Her love was so magnificent that he had started to not think of himself in those terms anymore. If someone like Betty could fall for someone like him instead of a walking testament to testosterone, like Glenn Talbot, maybe Bruce Banner wasn't so insignificant after all.

He wanted to prove that to himself, so Bruce and stolen away with his Gamma Imploder, intent on ending the situation. After seeing the Mandroids transmission of all of those bodies in the pit, innocent people the Hulk had killed, Banner knew there was no other way to claim absolution than by personally killing the Hulk. Until he saw that massive, unmarked grave, he had admired the Hulk, in a way. The Hulk took crap from no one and gave even better than he got. There was something liberating in fantasizing about being like the Hulk, of swatting the obnoxious Talbots of the world like a fly. But after seeing those bodies, Banner stopped admiring the Hulk. He was a merciless machine of rage, one that Banner had created, and it was only right that he put an end to it as well.

That was how he found himself with the Gamma Imploder's firing device in his hands and the power unit strapped to his back. He had requisitioned a jeep and took it to the battle zone. After driving as far as he could, he left the vehicle, following the sounds of carnage until he came upon the scene before him.

The Hulk had rendered Talbot helpless, his armor certain to be his tomb, if not from the Hulk's fists then from the smoke that was visibly filling the armor through the faceplate. Banner went through the system check on his weapon quickly, hoping to complete it before the Hulk pulverized Talbot into something that resembled road kill. It wouldn't do for Banner to give away his position before the weapon could be fired and have the Hulk kill him like he had all those others. Banner might have felt responsibility for the Hulk's creation, but not a suicidal amount.

As the Hulk hovered over Talbot, Banner cursed the weapon's slow power up. In designing it, it never occurred to him he would need to fire it quickly. If only he had thought to start the charging process before leaving the base. Then he could have fired it as soon as he laid eyes on the Hulk. Now Talbot would die from bludgeoning force rather than smoke inhalation.

The Hulk pulled the broken blade from his shoulder, keeping it in his good hand as he stood over the prone, screaming Talbot. Banner felt sick. He had never seen a man disemboweled before. Luckily, the Gamma Imploder would be powered up in the next ten seconds. It might not be enough time to save Talbot, but it would be enough to avenge him.

The Hulk brought the hand up high over his head and brought it down into the armor. Banner closed his eyes as he heard the impact. Talbot's screams continued uninterrupted as there was a grind of metal on metal. Not wanting to see it, but unable to keep his mentally visualizing everything, Banner opened his eyes.

Curiously there was no blood, despite the Hulk running the blade the length of the torso. Only smoke rose up from the rent in the armor and, impossibly, Talbot was still alive, his face just visible beyond the smoke inside.

The Gamma Imploder was charged up. All it would take was a pull of the trigger, and the Hulk would die a painful, if near instantaneous, death. Yet Banner hesitated, something was wrong with the Hulk's actions.

The emerald giant tossed the blade away. He placed one mighty foot on side of the rent, and dug his good hand in the opposite side. With a snarl he lifted upward, peeling half the armor off like rind from an orange. Banner watched in fascination as the Hulk did the same thing to the other side. There was now a hole large enough to allow a coughing Talbot to pull himself free from his metal tomb.

The Hulk looked disdainfully at the man, then walked away, holding his wounded shoulder gingerly. Now the Hulk was in the clear, allowing Banner to finish the matter once and for all. A simple pull of the trigger to clear his conscience, but instead of firing, the weapon fell to Banner's side. He wasn't sure of exactly what happened, but anything… no, anyone that could show mercy to a foe like Talbot would not die at the hands of Robert Bruce Banner. Nor would he create anymore weapons to capture of kill the Hulk. Upon returning to the base, he would break the Gamma Imploder and destroy the plans to it.

The matter of the Hulk was finished, at least as far as Banner was concerned.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Hey, Hulk, old Buddy. You look like crap."

The Hulk stopped walking randomly in one direction and looked up to see the Avengers surrounding him. The speaker had been Captain Japan. "Does Shield Man want to fight Hulk?"

Captain Japan shook his head, but kept most of his shield between him and the Hulk. "Nah, we're here to help ya'. After all, us Avengers got to stick together."

"You're going to help Hulk?" he asked suspiciously.

Thor spoke. "Indeed, already we have smote those that sought to do thee harm."

Seeing the Pretty Hammer Girl cheered the Hulk up immeasurably. "Hulk tried to find Avengers, but couldn't seem to find them. Hulk gets lost easily. Stupid roads change underneath his feet. All forests look the same. And sometimes hills attack Hulk."

"I… see," Hawkeye said slowly. "Life is pretty hard on you."

Iron Rose considered that. "You do seem to have a problem with locating things. Why don't we plant several global positioning units in your clothing so that we can locate you wherever you go?"

The Hulk looked inquiringly at Thor. "Um, is that good idea?"

"Verily."

"Then Hulk will let you do that."

Iron Rose added, "I might be able to rig up an audio directional unit that you could use. If you have your Avengers card, and say, 'I'… I mean, 'Hulk want to go home' it will start beeping. The closer you get to Avengers mansion, the louder the beeps get. So you won't have to pay attention to where you are walking, just listen for the beeps and walk around until they get louder."

"Hulk is good at listening. When tree fall in forest, Hulk knows he can hear it, even if he not there to hear it."

"Right," Iron Rose said slowly.

Giant Man, shrunk down to normal size, moved closer to the Hulk. "Why don't we have someone look at that shoulder of yours?"

"Can't Tall Man, who isn't tall now, see it from there?" the Hulk asked.

"I mean let a doctor see it." Giant Man corrected. He examined the wound. "Amazing, it's already healing. If you continue on like this, I think it'll be healed by the end of the day."

"If Hulk gets scab, Hulk won't pick at it," the green giant promised.

"You're a good patient," Giant Man said cheerfully.

Captain Japan spoke once more. "Why don't we head back to the mansion and find out what that supposed deal with the military was? Not that we'll turn the Jolly Green Giant over to them. I just want to know what's going on and if those guys were legit or not."

Iron Rose nodded. "My employer has impressive connections with the government. She can buy us the time we need to ascertain what is happening. The government isn't foolish enough to anger one of its primary munitions suppliers, one that employs over five thousand of its tax-paying citizens."

The Hulk couldn't follow what the metal girl was talking about. Or even who the metal girl was. She sounded like the Stove Person, but she didn't look like her. It was confusing. At least the Hammer Girl was as pretty as always. But as pleasing to his senses as the Hammer Girl was, there was something else the Hulk needed to urgently to take care of. "Hulk is hungry. Are there beans at the mansion? Hulk likes beans."

"All the beans you can eat," Hawkeye said.

"I'll be leaving before that happens," Daredevil assured him.

"Your super nose would be affected by that, wouldn't it?" Captain Japan jibed.

"At least I have a super power!" Daredevil snapped back.

As the two began bickering, the Hulk assessed the situation as his simple, direct mind could. Looking around at the heroes assembled about him, the Hulk felt unnaturally good for the first time in months, as though he had finally come home. That was especially good, since he couldn't think of an actual home he ever had. He wanted a home, though. He was certain of that. He didn't know why, and didn't care. Just wanting it was enough.

And he was going to eat beans. Lots and lots of beans. No matter how bad things might get, beans always made things better.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Well, we barely managed to avoid quite the incident there. Imagine, mistaking someone who stopped a serial killer for being the serial killer, and after he saved two of our own men. That would have looked exceptionally bad, you must admit. It was a good thing the Avengers prevented us from making a horrible mistake." Though it sounded like Irie was talking to no one in particular, it was obvious he was actually talking to everyone.

"Talbot will be court-martialed as soon as we get back," Ross promised. "I can't believe he nearly started an international incident like that. I thought better of the man."

Irie said, "Yes, well, I believe I've seen enough. You are going to partially get your wish, General."

"I am?" Ross looked around, seeing if anyone else knew what Irie was talking about.

"About returning home by morning," Irie explained. "I'm sending you and your Hulkbusters home."

"Now see here," Ross blustered. "While the Hulk might not have been responsible for this problem, it doesn't mean he's not a problem."

"So long as he's in Japan, he's a Japanese problem, though." Irie held a hand up to keep the general from protesting further. "I'll personally see to it our government guarantees yours that if there is some further complication from the Hulk arises later on, we won't blame you for it. I'll have someone contact your embassy staff with the proper paperwork by morning. So pack up your things, General. This operation is cancelled."

Ross grumbled under his breath, but ordered his men to begin dismantling all of the equipment for shipment back to base.

Kaori had mixed feelings about it. While it was good to know that the missing persons cases had been solved, it was a bitter fruit to swallow knowing the truth became known only because of some annoying superheroes. And she had been looking forward to seeing the Hulk taken care of, either being wrapped up and shipped off to the U.S. or destroyed outright. Either outcome would have been acceptable.

Kaori was still fuming when Irie approached her. "Yes?"

His perpetual smile was in place as he spoke. "I just wanted to let you know I've been impressed with your work tonight. You have the sort of enthusiasm that I admire. We're always looking for new members for Hound. I think you'd fit right in, so if you ever feel a desire for a change of scenery, be sure to come by the Ministry of Health and Welfare building and I'll see to it your paperwork gets processed quickly."

"Thank you," Kaori said as warmly as she would if someone had invited her to leap into a shark's open mouth.

"Do consider it, won't you? I'll be looking forward to the day we meet again." Irie turned away, exiting the building with his numerous bodyguards following close behind.

Gyrich moved closer to his goddaughter and said quietly, "Take it from someone in the business, that man's at the top of his game. Make sure you watch your back."

"I will," Kaori shuddered. She'd prefer a date with both Saeba twins then spend one minute longer around Irie Soyozoh. Worse, she had a terrible feeling she'd be meeting him again whether she wanted to or not.

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

End fic


	17. Act II Chap4: Backstabbing

Avenging Act II, Chapter 4 Backstabbing

Any and all C+C appreciated. You can contact me at: the previous chapters and my other works are stored at:

Larry F's new address at:  
http/ And also Angcobra is now storing fics, at http/ At newer works at Mediaminer disclaimer: I don't any of the Marvel characters or other characters from the numerous animes which are within.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Waves lapped against the sides of ships moored at the docks as they had since the mankind took to the seas. A briny scent filled the air, the ocean forcing its flavor anywhere it could touch. The full moon reflected off the water, providing enough illumination for a group of sailors working on the docks. The men were dressed in clothing that would have attracted the attention of anyone that saw them, had it not been near one AM. Most were stripped to the waist, with a number of ostentatious tattoos decorating their bodies. All had at least a dagger strapped to their belts, and many of the others had a number of less bloody instruments, such as truncheons and blackjacks. All of them were implements of pain, and each man appeared strong, and willing, enough to have used the weapons on anyone who irritated them.

The men were busy as they urged a group of women toward a wooden sailing vessel tied to the docks, its sails unfurled as though it would leave at any moment. The women's hands were bound together and gags were forced in their mouths, preventing any noise from leaking out. Each was forced to wear a set of longer iron chains clamped to their ankles, allowing enough room to walk carefully but no more. Their gait held the weight of despair that hobbled them down more effectively than chains ever could.

The group of sailors was dominated by a huge man who watched them carefully from the side. He stood over six feet high and weighed at least two-hundred and ninety pounds. His yellow shirt, faded from sun and water, had its sleeves torn off, displaying massive biceps. He wore a loose fitting pair of black pants and leather boots. His belt held a cutlass on one side and a flintlock pistol in the other. But his most bizarre characteristic was his lack of a left leg, which had been replaced with, of all things, a thick wooden peg.

The man growled, "Move quicker, you scurvy dogs. We weren't able to bribe all the watchmen to turn a blind eye to our cargo and we don't want troubles on this fine evening."

One of the sailors said, "Actually, Commander Kraken, calling us scurvy dogs is inappropriate since, thanks to the miracles of nutrition, we now eat a balanced diet with plenty of vitamin C to stave off the effects of that disease."

Commander Kraken turned to the man. The speaker couldn't help noticing his comrades suddenly backing away from him.

Kraken walked toward him, moving with fluidity despite the peg leg. "Oh, a comedian. You must be the new swabbie we hired in Thailand, is that right?"

The man gulped. "Yes, Sir."

"There's something you should probably know about me before you can continue with yer employment here."

"Sir?"

In a flash the cutlass was pulled free of Kraken's belt and swung, neatly decapitating the man. "I hate comedians!" As the body fell to the ground, gushing blood, Kraken turned to the rest of his crew. "Now then, you scurvy dogs, don't stand there gawking. Get that merchandise on board."

The men had started to move with renewed zeal when a voice descended from a large stack of crates. "Well, well, well, either this is a really off-Broadway production of 'The Pirates of Penzance' or I've stumbled on Commander Kraken and his amazingly outdated crew."

Kraken remained staring at his men as he said, "Now I wonder who the dead man that spoke to me in such a tone wa—" A billy club slammed into Kraken's wrist, knocking the pistol he had drawn out of his hand.

Daredevil had to credit the commander. His voice had remained steady as the man drew the weapon when he got to the word 'spoke' and continued talking as though nothing had happened. Had Daredevil not been able to sense the sudden jump in the commander's heartbeat, even he probably would have been taken by surprise.

Kraken rubbed his sore wrist. "Oh, a meddling would-be hero, is it now? And just which one might you be?"

"Daredevil, the Man Without Fear," he said. "And you're Commander Kraken, a pirate who's been plaguing every country with a seacoast for the last twenty years, and is one of the most wanted men in the world. You were a super villain ahead of your time."

Kraken shouted, "See here, now! I ain't no super-villain. I just be a humble pirate."

Daredevil was taken aback. "But your clothing, your archaic weapons, your crappy dialogue."

One of the sailors said, "Commander Kraken's always talked like that. It's not a costume, that's his everyday clothing. And he doesn't have any super powers either."

"And Kraken be my God-given name. I started as Midshipman Kraken before being promoted to Commander when the former commander took a walk out an airlock without scuba gear. Nasty business, that was," Kraken explained. "In any case, this is no act. Pirating is no mere occupation; it's a way of life. So I'll be appreciating it if you didn't slander my good name."

"Good name? You've been smuggling drugs, arms, and slaves," Daredevil pointed to the captured women, "for years all around the world."

"I prefer to think of myself as a purveyor of rare and exclusive goods. Besides, you speak of the laws of other countries. The rules of mere landlubbers hold no dominion over Commander Kraken. My home is the ocean that covers three-quarters of the world, and there the law be survival of the fittest. I am a law unto myself, and I say, you be the dead one here. Get him, swabbies!"

The men rushed as a group toward Daredevil. He leapt in the air, a fishing net he had picked up thrown from the folds of his sleeves. The men quickly found themselves caught up in the net, which grew tighter as they struggled against it.

Satisfied at his handiwork, Daredevil turned his full attention to the only man standing before him. "Now it's your turn."

"I see it falls to me to take care of matters." Commander Kraken drew his cutlass and pointed the tip at Daredevil.

The masked adventurer reached out with his senses. Despite the five meters of distance between he and his foe, Kraken's heartbeat was excited, as though he was about to launch an attack regardless of the distance. An errant memory crossed Daredevil's mind, one of a time in China when Swordsman held exactly the same pose.

Daredevil narrowly ducked out of the way as a bolt of electricity flashed from the tip of the cutlass, arcing past where the hero had been a second before.

"Trying to blast someone with a sword that shoots electricity proves you're a super-villain!" Daredevil shouted.

"No, it proves I'm sneaky and underhanded, just like a proper pirate should be."

Daredevil threw several billy clubs at Kraken, who batted them out of the way with his weapon, though with nowhere near the artful grace the Swordsman possessed. Several chains met the same fate. Daredevil closed the distance to his foe, feinting high with a blow, then coming in low as he tried to knock the peg leg out from under Commander Kraken. The kick hit, and Daredevil cried out in pain as his bone nearly broke from the impact.

The flat of the blade struck across Daredevil's chest, a discharge of electricity shocking him into immobility as he fell to the ground, landing on his back.

"I can anchor me peg leg to just about anything, sort of turning a debilitating injury into an advantage, don't you know," Commander Kraken offered in explanation as he took a couple of steps forward, intent on disemboweling his foe.

The pirate underestimated Daredevil's recuperative powers as the blind man raised his arms. From his sleeves spat out a huge white cloud, hitting Kraken in the face and driving him back.

"Gar, not the old 'fire extinguisher in the face' trick!" The pirate tried looking through the white mist surrounding him, but could see nothing.

A solid metal object struck him in the wrist, making him cry out in pain as he released his hold on the cutlass. Several other blows rained in with precision that should have been impossible in the white fog. Kraken found himself lying on his back as the mists cleared, Daredevil standing before him, the pirate's cutlass in his hands.

Daredevil hovered menacingly over the prone pirate, the yellow lenses of his mask seeming to bore holes through the man. "I have a few questions to ask, but first, whoever is behind those crates, come out!"

Using his radar sense, Daredevil felt the man, who had chosen to remain hidden for the duration of the fight, come out from his cover. The stranger had a slightly elevated heartbeat, but a powerful one, indicating he was in good shape. Daredevil could tell from the way the man moved and the smell of brine that seemed to come from his skin that this was a sailor, one wearing a body suit, which could only mean trouble.

The man came out with his hands halfway up, near his face. "Easy there, lad. I'm unarmed, as you can tell."

Actually Daredevil could tell, not only from the man's silhouette, but from the fact his heartbeat remained steady as he made his claim. "Who are you?"

"Captain Barracuda's the name." The man's hand moved to his face, making Daredevil tense up. However he only scratched at his eye, the sound of something leathery making contact with the finger. So he was wearing an eye patch. All he needed was a parrot on his shoulder and his own pirate image would be complete.

Daredevil's radar sense tipped him off to Kraken's heartbeat and adrenaline increasing, indicating he was about to attack. With a backhand swing, Daredevil cut off the peg leg that had just started to rise up off the ground. A laser flashed for a split second before the concealed weapon was rendered inoperable.

"You should be ashamed of yourself, attacking a disabled person like that." Captain Barracuda scratched his eye again. Only this time he raised the patch up and a beam of energy shot forth from the socket, striking Daredevil solidly and knocking him to the ground. This time he did not rise to his feet.

"Took ye long enough," Kraken complained. "Ye should have shot him before he lopped off me leg."

"Damn… pathological liar," Daredevil hissed out.

Barracuda kept his hand dangerously close to his patch. "As a matter of fact, I am. See if you can tell if I'm lying now. I'm going to kill you."

"No, you're not."

"Correct." Barracuda's hand started to lift the patch when an arrow hit it, the tip exploding and dousing half of his face with a sticky substance.

"What the hell is this?" Barracuda shouted as he found his hand and patch affixed solidly to his face.

"A glue arrow." Hawkeye emerged from behind a stack of crates. Towering above them came Giant Man, walking over them as though they were building blocks. Captain Japan followed by leaping from the top of one crate to the other.

Barracuda appeared as though he were about to run for it when he saw a tiny figure fly into his view. A beam of energy came from it, hitting him in the face and rendering him unconscious.

"That takes care of that. Another super-villain brought low by the combined might of half the Avengers," Wasp said cheerfully.

"I give up, too," Kraken added from his position on the ground.

Daredevil finally recovered enough to rise to his feet and turn his senses to his allies. "How did you know I was here?"

"We didn't," Hawkeye said. "I shook down a few snitches and they said that there was some kind of slave trade going down on the docks tonight with a Commander Kraken. I decided to call up some reinforcements to help out in case he proved a handful."

"Which he did," Captain Japan added. "You've really got to learn about this whole group of heroes thing. You can get a lot more accomplished working as a team, like those two losers did when they two-on-one'd you."

"Shut up!" Daredevil spat. "I didn't need your help."

"In what? Becoming a corpse?" Captain Japan shot back.

"This was personal. I need to talk to Kraken. He has some information I need."

"That be Commander Kraken to you, landlubber."

"Come here," Daredevil grabbed Kraken by his shirt and dragged him behind a few crates, out of sight of his fellow Avengers. He brandished Kraken's own cutlass before the pirate's face.

Kraken sneered at the unspoken threat. "Don't be stupid, you land bound twit. I know you super heroes don't go around torturing people for- Agh!"

The flat of the blade met Kraken's head, a discharge of electricity following.

Daredevil made a great production of regarding the hilt of the blade. "I see how it works. There's a pressure sensor on the grip. But what does this button do?" He pointed the tip of the blade at Kraken's face.

"I'll talk, laddie. No need to be torturin' me further," Kraken said. "Though you do do it well. Maybe you got a touch of pirate in ye after all."

Daredevil brought his face close. "In the last ten years have you ever come across a Chinese girl with purple hair?"

"Naturally purple?"

"Yes."

"No, can't say I have. And I'd remember a distinctive thing like that. An exotic color like that would triple her price."

"Are you certain?"

"Aye, laddie. I personally inspect all my merchandise, if you know what I mean." He winked at Daredevil.

"You scum!" Daredevil brought the hilt of the blade into the top of Kraken's skull. The pirate's eyes rolled into the back of his head and he slumped to the dock.

As the hero dragged Kraken back to the others, he silently cursed yet another dead end in his quest for Shampoo. He knew it had been a long shot, and a part of him prayed she hadn't ended up in the likes of Kraken's hands, but if it meant finding her again, it would be worth nearly any price. Almost.

If only Elektra hadn't died in China. She had known Shampoo. It had been the only lead he had to his love's identity in the last ten years. How ironic that it had come to him when he wasn't looking for it. And then it was lost as quickly as it had been found. It wasn't fair, though at least he knew she was still alive. Probably. He doubted Elektra's reaction to Shampoo's name would have been so fierce had it been in the distant past. He had to keep looking, no matter the cost. So he spent nearly all of his time trying to dig up leads with an obsessive vigor. His grades were suffering, and he had been skipping Avengers' summons for the last week as well. Finding Shampoo was what mattered.

It was the only thing that mattered.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Matsuo Tsurayaba stared over the long table at his fellow lieutenants in the Hand. For the most part they dressed in traditional kimonos, though a few were contemporary, like Matsuo, and preferred Armani. Any casual observer would have no idea that between the ten of them, they had killed close to a thousand men.

It was the monthly meeting of the heads of the Hand, all the commanders of their various sects in their proper places. There had been no unexpected deaths or assassinations among the ranks of the commanders. Sometimes members of the Hand liked to test their skills against their own, usually with fatal results.

It wasn't the lieutenants that dominated the meeting or Matsuo's thoughts, though. What concerned him was the new head of the Hand. Head was an appropriate term since that was about all there was to the thing which rested on a cushion on the table at the head of the table, relaxing as though it owned the world.

It was most peculiar. The former leader of the Hand, known only as Hard Master, had been an assassin of unsurpassed skill and sound judgment. And while the Hand had not flourished as it had in times past, neither did it suffer. Matsuo had been making plans to have the old head eliminated in ten years time or so, when he was in proper position to take over the organization. Those plans came to an abrupt end three months ago when, instead of the Hard Master, a new being entered the room.

It was a beach ball shaped yellow thing with simple features that passed for a face, almost as though they were drawn on by a child with a magic marker. It came in flying on wings that flowed out of the substance of the ball, able to appear and disappear without sign of an actual aperture, much like the being's hands. It floated onto a padded cushion placed on the table in front of where the Hard Master had formerly sat, said its name was Onsokumaru, and announced it had become the new head of the Hand. Most of the other lieutenants, including Matsuo, assumed this was some sort of test, and placidly accepted the situation. However, this Onsokumaru thing ran things as though it were in charge, and there was no Hard Master to contradict its whimsical decisions.

Also of note were Onsokumaru's two bodyguards that stood at his side during any public appearances. The first was a sixteen-year old girl dressed in a pink and black kunoichi outfit. It was extremely small, hugging her chest tightly and showing a huge bust hidden underneath, with the lower edge of the uniform barely making it past her bottom. It was a good psychological edge against any male that allowed his hormones to distract him. The only odd thing about the uniform was the white headband with the smiley face on it, but even that was appropriate since the girl called Shinobu seemed perpetually happy. Curiously, Matsuo could sense no danger about her. Even the way she moved implied she only knew the basics of the art. Hardly the sort that should be a bodyguard to anyone.

The other bodyguard was the exact opposite in nearly every way. He was about the same age, had black hair as well, and that was where the similarities ended. He wore non-traditional garb. Brown pants and a blue jacket with a red and white ball shaped symbol on the back. He wore a metal forehead protector with an odd arrow symbol on it. Where Shinobu was perpetually happy, the taciturn Sasuke Uchiha was dour and radiated a healthy amount of anger, which in turn was dwarfed by his barely restrained sense of power.

For this meeting Matsuo had decided to test one of the bodyguards of his new 'master'. This Shinobu was an enigma, and it was time to see if solving her would lead to information about the others. Matsuo scratched his chin, a signal to the assassin hidden above one of the ceiling tiles directly above the meeting table. The already slightly misadjusted panel moved upward just a tiny bit, no more than a crack. Just enough to fire an arrow at the girl.

Matsuo could feel the assassin take aim when Shinobu suddenly sneezed. He swore he sensed something small cut through the air at the edge of his perception.

"Bless you," Onsokumaru said.

Shinobu rubbed her nose. "Sorry, I sneezed one of my throat spikes out. Did anyone see where it went?"

A body fell through the tile and landed on the middle of the table.

"Oh, there it is." Shinobu removed the poisoned throat dart from the body even as it began to smolder, giving off a greenish mist as it disintegrated. Within seconds all that remained was the empty outfit of the ninja, his soul traveling to one of the capture spheres hidden about the world. Once caught, it would eventually be consumed in a powerful spell. No one was allowed to leave the Hand, even in death.

There was the answer to that question, Matsuo noted silently to himself. Shinobu was so dangerous that not even one with his impressive abilities had sensed an attack coming. She was probably more dangerous than Sasuke, and Onsokumaru more powerful than either of them if they had sworn fealty to him.

Onsokumaru said, "Now that the obligatory assassination attempt is over, let's get down to business. How many new attractive babes have joined the Hand?"

One of the lieutenants shifted uncomfortably. "Female recruitment is only up ten percent, and most of them aren't… babes."

Onsokumaru slammed a hand (which appeared from his round surface) onto the table. "Didn't I order babe recruitment up two hundred percent?"

"It seems most babes want to be models, not assassins," the man explained.

"Damn bias against ninjas," Onsokumaru mumbled. "Hopefully our Ninja World Amusement Park will change the public's perception of us"  
The lieutenants looked at one another. Matsuo said, "I thought you were joking about that."

"Why? It's a great idea. It'll do wonders for the image of ninjas everywhere."

"We're assassins. We kill people, not entertain them."

"I don't see why we can't do both at the same time."

"We can't afford to build an amusement park," one of the others said.

Onsokumaru huffed. "Do I have to think of everything? There's a European assassin called Arcade that uses murderous amusement rides. Kill him and we'll rebuild all of his 'Murderworlds' into 'Ninja Worlds'."

Matsuo considered that. Actually, that would work. The whole Ninja World thing was stupid, of course, but it was an economical way of doing it, as well as eliminating a rival assassin. Maybe they could even make the Ninja Worlds financially viable. Perhaps it was something to seriously consider.

Onsokumaru moved things along. "How about our success and mortality rates?"

Another lieutenant stood up, "One hundred and two successful assassinations, fifty-eight." He looked at the empty uniform on the table. "Fifty-nine deaths among our membership."

"Why so many fatalities this month?" Onsokumaru asked.

Matsuo answered, "It's Elektra, Sir. She's killing the men we keep sending to kill her."

Onsokumaru started weeping, "It's so unfair. She was a major babe. Why did she turn on us?"

"It hardly matters, Sir." But inside, Matsuo seethed in rage. She was to be his Assassin Prime and key enforcer in controlling the Hand, and now it was all for nothing. When Shan Pu had taken the Elektra name, he knew something had gone wrong with her training. He had failed to eradicate every aspect of her former mentality. But he had been convinced he had obtained her at an early enough age to train her without resorting to drugs for brainwashing. Now her open betrayal meant death, and a setback to Matsuo's long-term plans.

Onsokumaru said, "I want her captured, not killed. Then I can interrogate her myself." The eyes of the Hand's leader took on a distant gaze and drool slipped from his mouth.

That display disturbed even Matsuo, who had once eviscerated a half-dozen children to test himself and ensure he hadn't developed any ridiculous feelings of sentimentality. He hadn't. "She killed the Yamamoto Twins."

"WHAT?" Onsokumaru roared. "They were two of the hottest babes in the Hand! And twins! Do you know how hard it is to recruit hot twins? That is unacceptable. The needs of the many babes outweigh the needs of the one. Elektra will have to be dispatched."

Shinobu raised her hand and gleefully shouted, "I can kill her, Onsokumaru-sama!"

Onsokumaru considered that. "I wonder if we could lure her into a nude oil wrestling death trap."

It was at that moment the door to the chamber burst open, revealing several figures in the doorway. To the untrained eye, it would have appeared none of the men at the table reacted, but to Matsuo he could sense every man tense up and small movements indicated they were ready to unleash the weapons concealed on their persons. Any single individual that could arrive so close to Matsuo without him sensing them was skilled. For four of them to manage it at the same time meant it could only be… them.

Four young men strode into the room, all of various ages, though each was painfully bishonen. The oldest was also the tallest, a blond wearing a blue trench coat and white gloves. The second in age was also tall, with reddish hair, an affinity for black, and a sheathed katana strapped across his back. The third was shorter than the other two, wearing a brown leather jacket and jeans. The youngest and shortest by far wore a sweatshirt and pants, and had a hand crossbow hung at his side. There were intakes of breath around the table, though Matsuo resisted the urge. No one had expected Youji Kudou, Aya Fujimiya, Ken Hidaka, or Omi Tsukiono, the so-called 'Snakeroot' of the Hand, to show up at the meeting. They were unquestionably some of the greatest killers the Hand had ever seen.

"Hey, guys, we're back, and we brought this!" the blond, Youji, declared as he threw a human skeleton on top the table. It made a clunking noise, the weight of the skeleton chipping some of the table surface. "We couldn't remove the head. Did you know his entire skeleton is made of adamantium? Stuff's fused together, too."

"The claws could be made to slide out, though." Ken, the youth with the brown jacket pulled out a glove with three long blades attached to the back to extend over the knuckles.

The youngest, Omi, added, "That Yukio girl that was with him is dead, too. I found out she was my third cousin, twice removed. Another member of my family is dead. Soon there won't be any of them left." He sighed.

"She was definitely a hot lay," Youji said.

Omi turned on him in anger. "You slept with her? She was my cousin!"

"She was dead."

"So you think defiling her corpse makes me feel better?"

"You're the one that killed her."

"It was fated that she die, like all of my family! It's a tragedy that I have to bear." Omi radiated a healthy doze of angst.

Aya finally entered the conversation, talking to Youji. "Maybe you should try sleeping with, you know, a girl that's alive."

Youji scoffed. "Nah, I tried it. They start whining and bitching about size, tempo, and want to be held afterwards, like it's all about them. When I sleep with a girl, it's all about me and my pleasure, not them. Doing it when they're dead makes it easier for both of us.

Ken spat at the skeleton lying on the table. "And this asshole called me a queer. Fucking gaijin mutie."

"You sleep with guys," Aya pointed out.

"That doesn't make me gay!" Ken shouted.

"It doesn't?" Aya asked.

"No! It just means I like sleeping with guys! I don't even like fags."

Matsuo noted that not only were they expert killers, but they were also completely insane. Well, maybe not Aya. It was hard to say, since he was so quiet and hung out with the other trio, who were loud and crazy.

Onsokumaru stared at the skeleton on the table. "You actually managed to kill Logan?"

"Yes," Aya said.

Youji turned once again to the people lining the table. "I think congratulations are in order."

"Not really," Onsokumaru said. "We assumed you'd die like the two hundred and thirty-five other members of the Hand he's killed before you. We only sent you on that mission in the hopes that you'd meet the same fate as the others. You are insane, after all."

Matsuo felt his heart miss a beat. Actually what Onsokumaru said was true. It had been decided that the Snakeroot was too unstable to keep around. No matter how nicely you treated a rabid dog it would try to bite you. But to tell them that to their faces? Matsuo prepared for a fight. He had a squad of his most dangerous subordinates only a floor away on standby alert. If he could hold off the Snakeroot long enough, he could use his men's lives to buy time for him to escape.

"How did you kill him?" Onsokumaru asked, temporarily defusing the situation.

"It was easy," Ken said. "He was highly overrated."

Aya said, "He had just fought and killed two men, one called Creed and the other called Cyber. He was so weakened from the fight that not even his healing factor could overcome our attacks."

"Like I said, overrated," Ken said.

Onsokumaru stared at the skeleton for a few moments longer, then looked at the men. "I have another mission for you. We need you to kill Elektra."

The Snakeroot looked warily at one another. Youji said, "I'm not sure I want to go on any more missions if you're just sending us to die."

"I said we were hoping you would die, not that actually dying is part of the mission. If you don't want to die, then don't."

The Snakeroot silently stared at one another. It was at that moment Shinobu sneezed again. Ken's headband fell to the floor a moment later. All eyes turned to look at the throat needle that was embedded in the wall next to Ken's head.

Shinobu laughed embarrassedly.

Aya shrugged. "Why not?"

"She is seriously hot. If I could get her while she was still warm…." Now it was Youji's turn for his eyes to take on a distant glaze.

"I'm not so sure," Omi said.

"I'll get you the name of a third cousin of yours," Onsokumaru offered.

"Done."

Ken continued staring at the dart embedded in the wall.

"It's settled, then. You go kill Elektra and have some fun," Onsokumaru said.

The four turned and left. Matsuo couldn't decide if it had been deft maneuvering on Onsokumaru's part or just plain luck. What he did know was that in any case, he'd bide his time and wait a bit longer for an opening to take control of the Hand.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Atsushi Morikawa sat at the bar, working on his third vodka martini, looking at his watch every five minutes. Soon that hottie, Hikari Kine, would show up, and they could have a few drinks before heading back to his place for some hot sex. And he wouldn't have to pay her afterwards, like he did most of the other girls he slept with. Life was finally taking an upswing for the information broker.

Atsushi had gone halfway through his drink when he felt a pair of arms wrap themselves around his neck and a set of impressive breasts mash themselves against his back. A light caress of breath touched his ear, turning him on. His date was even friskier than he could have hoped.

Then Atsushi felt the small blade press against his jugular.

"How's it going, Atsushi?" a woman's voice whispered in his ear.

"Elektra," he whispered. "Come on, don't do this. If the Hand catches me telling you anything, they're going to kill me."

"But they can only kill you later, while I can kill you now."

Atsushi detested how casual she sounded saying things like that. "There hasn't been any word out of them in the last five days. I mean nothing. It's weird, like they've given up on you or something. I'm being honest. I'm not holding out on you." But she wasn't going to believe him. She'd cut his throat and be out of the bar before anyone saw the blood pooling around him because she was that good. He went ahead and wet himself just to get it over with.

Instead of slitting his throat, Elektra said, "Damn. I was afraid of that. I'm going to need help. You did well." Her arms disappeared from his throat and the breasts removed themselves from his back. For the first few seconds he thought she was just lulling him into a false sense of relief so that the blade to the back was all the more surprising. But nothing happened.

And then a pair of arms wrapped themselves around his waist and a set of impressive breasts mashed themselves against his jacket. "How's it going, Atsushi?"

Hikari had finally shown up. He laughed softly.

Her hand went down to his groin, grasping it. Then the grasping stopped and the breasts weren't pressed against him so tightly. Atsushi's eyes nearly rolled into the back of his head. It was over.

"Ohhhh, you are well informed. How did you know I have a fetish for urine?" She grasped his groin even tighter.

Atsushi laughed. It appeared it was going to be a good night after all.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Bouncing atop her pool cue, Stick maneuvered her way into the private back room of Ohtana's Bar for her regular meeting with her protégé. Daredevil had been irksome lately, agitated beyond anything since his return from China and that sordid incident with the Mandarin. At first Stick thought it was from difficulty in dealing with a team, but of late, she was certain it was something else. Something had happened in China, something that had him trying to dig up information on Shampoo harder than ever.

Stick sensed him come in from the skylight above, silently descending on a cable from one of his billy clubs. Halfway down, he dropped the rest of the way, landing on the edge of the pool table.

"Want me to applaud?" Stick asked.

"Has there been any word for me?"

"Actually there is," Stick hopped off the cue and onto the floor. She hoisted the cue over her shoulder. "Word passed through the network that some girl named Elektra wants to meet you at the Halfway Scraper tomorrow at five past midnight. She also adds you're a lousy kisser."

Daredevil was so startled he nearly fell off the edge of the pool table.

Stick shook her head sadly. "Listen to me, boy, any relationship with someone named Elektra is bound to end in tragedy. It's fate. Keep your distance from her."

Daredevil spun in fury on his mentor. "Save it! She has information about Shampoo. Nothing can stop me from meeting her."

Stick shrugged. "Fine. Meet her and discover yet another dead end. Maybe you'll realize it's the last one, and you can get over this idiotic obsession and move forward with your life."

"I am moving forward with my life," he insisted.

Stick shook her head sadly. "No, you're stuck in the exact same pattern you've been in since I dragged your blind ass out of that shelter. You're afraid to move forward. That's why you keep ignoring as many of those Avengers meetings as you can. Acting like an actual member of the team, or worse, like their friend, would mean you're letting go of your dead past, which you can't bring yourself to do, coward."

"They aren't my friends," he retorted.

"Oh no, they just save your sorry behind because they have time to kill. Yes, I heard about your run in with the pirates at the docks. You'd have been dead without your friends, and yes, they do consider you as one, though God knows why. Keep pushing them away and eventually they'll stop coming back. You'd better get your act together before it's too late."

"I don't have to listen to this!"

Stick smirked, letting her pool cue go from one hand to the other. "Actually, with your super-sensitive hearing, you do, unless you think you can shut me up."

To her amusement, he didn't even try to offer a counter argument. He simply said, "I have a meeting to keep," and left the way he had arrived.

Stick shook her head sadly. "Kids. I forgot how much I hate raising them."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The 'Halfway Scraper' was a slang term for a partially completed skyscraper that stood in a low scale area of Tokyo. Plans had called for it to be the centerpiece of a new financial district that would restore the area, but funding for the building fell through when it was revealed they were being backed by an outfit called the Secret Empire, and that the building was intended to be a forward attack base capable of leveling Tokyo. So it stood alone, a framework with some flooring and almost no walls, slowly falling into ruin. A scarecrow of concrete and steel in a field of urban decay.

Upon arriving, Daredevil discovered the security guard for the grounds unconscious in his guardhouse. That meant Elektra had already arrived. He used his billy club to snare a girder and hoisted himself up to the fourth floor, one with much of the flooring complete. He walked through the building, his radar sense telling him about the structure in a way mere eyes never could. Except for what color it was, of course.

Daredevil stood silently for a full minute before calling out, "You can come down from your hiding spot against that girder one floor up and eight and a half meters to my right."

Removing herself from that very spot, Elektra ran forward, leaping through an incomplete section of the floor and down to Daredevil's level. She landed a handful of meters away from him, not out of his reach but far enough for her to react to any move he made.

"You're in rare form," Elektra congratulated. "I'm going to need those extra senses of yours."

"Tell me about Shampoo."

"After you do me a favor."

"No favors." Daredevil took a menacing step toward the girl.

"No favors, no info." Elektra laughed. "And save the threats of bodily harm you're going to use next. They might work on a street punk whose mutant power to shoot quills just developed, but they're wasted on a professional like me. I've been trained to resist torture from experts. I'd die before you exceeded my pain threshold, and if you anger me enough, I'm out of here. So do we deal or not?"

Daredevil wanted to argue, but she was right. For someone with no super-powers, she handled herself far too well. "What do you want?"

"Better. My former masters, the Hand, are sending their top assassins, the Snakeroot, to kill me for helping you against the Mandarin. I need you to help me kill them first."

"I don't kill people," Daredevil pointed out. Something was bothering him, but he couldn't quite place it.

Elektra made no effort to hide her disdain. "Spare me your useless morality. If it's any consolation to you these four are killers a hundred times over, and unlike me they're psychotics that enjoy it. Killing is as integral to them as eating and sleeping. They can't stop themselves, even if they wanted to. If you capture them, they'll eventually find a way to escape and kill again. The only thing that can stop them is death itself. It's the only practical way to deal with them."

The feeling of unease grew so badly, Daredevil fidgeted. "You're an expert killer yourself. Why do you need my help?"

Elektra said, "The Snakeroot possesses an exceptional talent that goes beyond what any in the Hand can master. They have the ability to blend into their environment. They—"

That was it! Daredevil ran forward and tackled Elektra, catching the girl off guard and driving her back a handful of meters. A crossbow bolt flew past where her head had been a moment before, embedding itself in the wooden floor.

Daredevil continued rolling along the floor with Elektra hugged tightly to his body. He finally stopped next to a partially completed wall, where he judged they would be safe from further bolts. Once he released her, Elektra remained crouched behind the wall, her sais drawn and at the ready.

"They are good." Daredevil hadn't truly sensed them. Somehow they were able to fade into the background, creating a dead zone which normal senses couldn't reach. That was how Daredevil had spotted them. The odd feeling he couldn't place had been the 'blind spots' they created when negating their presence in people's senses.

Now it was different. With the failure of the crossbow bolt, they were on the move, which seemed to negate their near supernatural camouflage abilities. Apparently they couldn't attack and maintain their hidden nature. Even now they were moving very quietly, trying to flank the pair.

"I wonder how they knew you'd be here," Daredevil mumbled quietly.

"They heard the same message you did. Why do you think I specified Elektra instead of something ambiguous, like 'the girl who saw you without your mask' or some other reference that only you would know?"

"Why did you do that?" Daredevil snapped.

"So you'd have no choice but to help me. Now it's kill or be killed. Besides, I'd rather know when and where they're going to try to kill me. It makes a confrontation easier."

"How did you know I'd shown up?"

"Your obsession with Shampoo. You would have come even if you had two broken legs."

Daredevil's frayed nerves snapped. "I'm tired of everyone saying I'm obsessed!"

"Then stop being obsessed."

Reigning in his temper, Daredevil asked, "What do we do now?"

Elektra began to crawl silently away from him. "You draw them out and I'll do what I do best; stab them in the back."

"Why me?"

"Because you can avoid their attacks and you need me alive to give you the information you crave." She moved away from him more quietly than a mouse. Daredevil had to admit she was one of the most silent people he had ever met.

He returned his attention to the trio of men moving about him. The one that had fired the crossbow moved above him, seeking a line of fire while maintaining his distance. Two others were on the same level he was, trying to flank him, one heavier than the other judging by the sound of their treads. He couldn't sense any of them pursuing their primary target, Elektra. Maybe they weren't as good at sensing things as they were at hiding.

It was a coordinated attack and Daredevil would have all three of them moving on him at the same time if he remained where he was. Taking the initiative, he lunged toward the larger of the ones on the ground, hoping to take him by surprise. If he could finish one off fast, the odds switched into Daredevil's favor. With his skills he was confident he could defeat two normal people, assassins or not. And if Elektra was moving into position to assist him, they would fall even more quickly.

A crossbow bolt just missed Daredevil as he sprang from cover and charged the largest of the assassins. With his radar senses he could perceive the katana the man had in his hand. Before he could close within reach of the blade, Daredevil loosed a volley of billy clubs from his sleeves toward the swordsman.

Amazingly he dodged through the wave of weapons. Daredevil barely had enough time to pull a sword from his robes and deflect the assassin's attack. The blind adventurer had taken to keeping one on his person and stepping up practice with it since his confrontation with the Swordsman, though his lacked the in-built weaponry the boorish oaf's had.

Within seconds Daredevil learned the difference between being skilled and being a master. Despite his foe being an assassin, the katana user had a large measure of talent in wielding his weapon. Daredevil was put on the defensive, barely able to use his agility to keep from being skewered or disarmed.

Daredevil was so intent on the man in front of him that he almost forgot about the other two wanting to take his head. He narrowly avoided a pair of crossbow bolts that came dangerously close to hitting the bowman's ally, though the katana wielding man took no notice of it.

The bolts stopped coming only because the other assassin on the ground had arrived. Daredevil could sense a trio of blades extended from the hand. Immediately the claw man began slashing at Daredevil's back. The hero discarded the sword in favor of his shorter but more familiar billy clubs, wielding one in each hand and buying time for Elektra to move into position. He tried defending himself as best as he could, parrying a flurry of attacks, but each man began to sneak blows in past his defense. A katana cut across his chest, parting his red robes. A trio of scratches ripped open his back. Another sword strike to the leg slowed him down. Escape was impossible now, and still Elektra hadn't appeared.

Then a telling blow. The man with the trio of blades caught Daredevil high in the shoulder with a straight thrust, two of the blades sank deeply and drove the hero back into a crate, pinning him to it. The billy clubs slipped from his hands and fell to the ground as he cried out in pain at the impalement. It didn't feel like the blade hit bone, but it hurt even worse than the time Elektra had driven a sai through his hip. He tried removing it and received a punch to his face. Between the pain and near concussion, he could barely concentrate and hovered on the edge of unconsciousness.

"Nice work, Ken," the sword-wielder said.

"Like I would do anything less, Aya," Ken responded.

"Hey, I kept him pinned down long enough for you to nail him," the crossbow user shouted down from his position on the upper floor.

"Like you were at any risk, Omi," Ken shot back. "Now to business." He returned his attention to Daredevil. "Where did Elektra run off to?"

The name helped Daredevil focus. Elektra, that bitch! She had set him up. He was certain of it. She had more than enough time to attack and keep him from dealing with three-on-one odds, to keep him from the agony he was in. That must have been her plan from the beginning, using him to buy time to escape. If he ever got his hands on the traitorous bitch, she was history.

Daredevil should have told them everything he knew about her, but he needed her alive. Betrayer or not, she was the only one who knew anything about Shampoo. She had been right. He needed her alive.

"Fuck you!" He spat in Ken's face.

Daredevil felt Ken's heartbeat triple, well beyond how excited he had been during the fight. "Did you just imply I'm a fag?" He pushed harder on the claws, making Daredevil cry out in pain.

"He was just swearing at you, not impugning your sexuality," Aya said wearily.

"That's not what it sounded like to me."

"To you everything anyone says sounds like they're implying you're gay. How about that newsstand guy you killed as we passed by him yesterday?"

"He accused me of being a fag!"

"He asked you if you wanted a paper."

"It was the way he said it."

As Ken talked, Daredevil sensed the clearly insane man was truly distracted. A plan came to him, but it would only work if he could summon enough strength to pull it off, and the others became distracted too.

From above, Omi shouted, "Wait, ask him if he's related to anyone named Omi Tsukiono."

"No way! You'll try and kill him, and he's mine to kill for calling me gay!"

"He didn't say you were gay," Aya repeated in a tired voice.

"At least take off his mask and see if he looks like me," Omi insisted.

Daredevil sensed what was about to happen a half second before it actually occurred. Omi took a deeper intake of breath, probably because he was about to say something else, when the squishing sound of metal parting flesh reached Daredevil's ears. It ended as the tip of the sai emerged from the Omi's chest right where his heart was located. The hero heard Omi's final heartbeat, as it pumped once around the metal through the heart, then stopped forever.

Elektra removed the blade, letting Omi's dead form slump to the ground where it began to smolder, giving off a green mist. "You aren't the only ones who can use shadows to your advantage."

"You've got that right," a voice said from above her as a wire dropped past her line of sight. Reflexively Elektra brought both her sai up to neck level, one on each side, barely keeping the wire from digging into her throat. However, it was no single wire, but a complex set, almost like a cat's cradle, which had looped around her. Her sai were stabbing weapons, lacking a sharp edge, and she was unable to cut through the wire. Instead she found all her strength used to keep the wire at bay. Her foe proved more powerful than her, and the noose tightened, forcing her sai closer to her neck. There wasn't enough room to move her head out of the way of the closing circle of death. She was trapped.

Aya stared up in anger at the wire user. "Youji, you asshole, why weren't you watching Omi's back?"

"I was," Youji said conversationally, as though he was fixing breakfast instead of strangling someone.

"Then why did you let him get killed?"

"It was the only way to draw Elektra out. If I had changed position, she would have sensed me and ran for it, and tracking her down again would have been a major pain in the ass. It was much more efficient this way."

"But Omi's dead."

Youji shrugged, tightening the noose so that now Elektra's blades were touching the sides of her throat. "We'll have the Hand resurrect him."

"Resurrecting people takes a lot of soul power. They only do that under extreme circumstances. They only did five in the last century."

"And didn't Onsokumaru say something about wanting us dead?" Ken pointed out.

Youji said, "If they bitch about the soul thing, we'll just have to kill enough guys in the Hand to make up the loss. That should solve everything. Ah, here it comes. I can't wait to get a piece of your ass."

The wire had finally pressed close enough to draw blood, and Elektra made a choking sound. A whistle through the air joined the sound, and suddenly Youji found his wire grow slack.

The lack of resistance threw him off balance for the briefest of seconds. That was enough time for Elektra to spin and throw a sai upward. Her aim was true as the sai buried itself to the hilt in Youji's chest, in the heart just like Omi's had been. A look of disbelief passed behind his sunglasses before he fell from the girder he was on, dead on impact with the floor.

At the same moment the wire snapped, a pool cue arced through the air like a missile toward Aya's back. Gracefully he pivoted on one foot, slashing through the cue and batting it aside. A coolness pass over him as he felt the blade contact the wood and the improvised weapon went flying to the side. Or more correctly, half of it, as he saw, to his horror, that someone had unscrewed the cue, making it two missiles. They had been thrown so closely together and perfectly in line Aya had mistaken them for only one.

That passed through his mind a split second before the other shaft struck his throat, crushing his windpipe. The katana slipped from his fingers as he fell to his knees, clutching at his throat as he gasped for air that would never reach his lungs.

That was the opening Daredevil had been waiting for. He grabbed Ken by the wrist in a grip of iron and kicked out. Despite his grip, kicking Ken shifted the blades slightly, loosening the wrist enough to slip out of the glove with the blade attached to it. Ken went flying backward to land on his bottom, trying to gather his wind after the kick.

"For Shampoo," Daredevil thought to himself as he pulled out the blades, biting on his lip fiercely enough to draw blood, but refusing to cry out in pain.

"Those are mine!" Ken shouted, pointing at the blades Daredevil now held in his hand. He pulled out another glove, this one for his left hand, and put it on.

Daredevil threw a bag of powder at Ken, who evaded it rather than trying to slash it aside, which was what the hero had hoped he'd do, since it would have blinded him.

Ken began slashing madly, taking no heed of what he was cutting. Daredevil backpedaled, going completely evasive as the blades came closer to him by the second. On one near miss, Daredevil ducked a slash that opened up a cut on his cheek. A second cut made sparks fly as Ken managed to cut through a support with the razor sharp adamantium blades. In a completed structure it would have meant nothing, but in the Halfway Scraper it was the sole means of support for that area of the floor. Daredevil heard the groan of weight from above and recognized it as the sound for a mortal blow to the ceiling. He barely had enough time to leap out of the way as several tons of building fell directly on top of Ken. Gravity took over as the weight also caused the floor to collapse, taking the debris with a few more tons with it. Daredevil heard the echo through the building as the pile fell through two more floors before coming to a stop.

Daredevil lay on his back, panting for breath.

"You might want to bind your wounds," Elektra suggested from above.

Wordlessly Daredevil did as she recommended, pulling a first aid kit out and wrapping the wound up. He'd need hospitalization, but the stopgap measure should keep him from bleeding to death.

As he wrapped it up, a voice cracking with the weight of age said, "Haven't you idiots learned to not go into battle without a plan? You're lucky I happened along or it would have been the end for both of you."

Daredevil sensed Elektra tense up. Barely noticeable, but it was there. "That's my ghoul of a mentor, Stick. She taught me everything I know about fighting and using my hyper-senses."

Elektra relaxed just a touch. She looked at Stick, who stood next to a different hole on the same floor she was on. "We were outnumbered by a more powerful force that was willing to succeed at their goal no matter the cost. The odds were against us from the beginning."

Daredevil injected some painkillers into his arm. He'd need to move shortly. "Why didn't you just ask me to contact the rest of the Avengers, then? Just one more of them, and we'd have been able to kick these guys asses."

"And they would have insisted I go to prison for what I've done in the past," Elektra explained. "I'd have been killed there within twenty-four hours. You're the only one who wouldn't do that. The whole idea behind this was that I get out alive, and I have." She began to walk away.

"Wait! I came through with my part of the bargain. Now tell me where Shampoo is!" he demanded.

Elektra stopped, turned around, and stared at him. "First I want you to answer a question. Why do you seek her out?"

"I have to protect her."

"And if she does not want or need your protection, what then?"

"I… I have to. I promised I would."

"I see. Then you aren't doing this for her. You're doing it for yourself."

"That's not true!" Daredevil shouted.

"Of course it is. Let me guess. You feel guilt over her capture after arriving in Japan when you were seven."

Daredevil stared at her in disbelief. Stick was the only person whom he had told. "You know about that?"

Elektra smirked. "There is nothing I didn't know about her. We might as well have been one with how close we were. Tell me something. Do you feel personal guilt when an earthquake hits, or a ship sinks, or how many people die from starving in Bangladesh?"

"Of course not."

"Because there is nothing you can do about them. Likewise there was nothing you could have done about her capture. You were seven. You were lucky to have survived your village being bombed. Even making it as far as Japan, for that matter. Her capture was as inevitable as the surf pounding on the shore, and there was nothing you could have done about it."

"I don't care about your stupid opinion!" Daredevil shouted. "Just tell me where she is."

Elektra shrugged. "Very well. I was trying to dissuade you, but I see it's pointless. She's gone. She passed away quietly and didn't suffer, which is the best one can hope for living in this ambivalent world."

"You're lying!"

Elektra sneered. "Oh, of course I must be. After all, it is so advantageous to me to lie to you about this. Remind me again of why I would bother. The reasoning escapes me."

With his hyper-senses, Daredevil could sense a person's heartbeat far more accurately than a lie detector. There was no tension whatsoever in Elektra as she spoke. Actually, she had become noticeably irritated at his contention that she was lying. And she made sense. She had no reason to lie. Not about this. Not to him. And he had a feeling that under these conditions, she'd keep her word.

Daredevil went from panic to fear to hopelessness. In the quietest moments of the eternal night he lay in, his mind had tortured him with the idea that Shampoo might be dead. That he had failed her and she had suffered because of his failure. It was his fault. All his fault. He didn't know how he could have saved her, found her before she died. But there had to have been a way. There had to have been.

Daredevil released a soul wrenching wail that filled the building. "I failed her! Oh god, when it mattered the most I failed her!"

A snort of derision cut through the air, and his agony turned to rage. He said nothing, turning toward Elektra, the rage hidden behind his mask but all too clear in his body language.

Elektra showed no concern. "How self-centered you are, blaming yourself for your perceived failure when it was Shampoo's own inadequacies that resulted in her fate."

"How dare you!"

"It is the truth!" Elektra shouted, and Daredevil could feel her own anger build. "A person's life is ultimately their responsibility, not another's. To assume such without even being asked insults them to no end."

"You wouldn't understand, you heartless bitch!"

"I should just leave you to a lifetime of wallowing in your self-inflicted wounds," Elektra snarled. "But since Shampoo meant something to me, and you meant something to her, I will share with you an item she gave to me: the truth."

Daredevil stopped, confused. "What are you talking about?"

"She never blamed you for what happened, fool. On the contrary, you were one of the only two people in the world she cared for, the other being her best friend. She had assumed you were dead after she was abducted. Her one wish above all others was that you had survived and been dealt a kinder fate than her. Despite your blindness, you have been. You have found a niche in life that suits you, and allies that obviously care for your well-being. You have the freedom to choose what you want in life. But instead you wander aimlessly about on a Quixotic quest, wasting everything she had wished for you to have. And you say I'm heartless?

"So by all means, spit on the memory of one you contend you hold so dear. It means nothing to me. As far as I'm concerned you're just a pathetic loser who goes out of his way to make himself miserable. Despite her hardships Shampoo remained alive, continued to evolve and became a person. She moved on, and she was the one that, according to you, suffered. You disgust me. You aren't worthy of a single thought she had. I will leave now, try and stop me and you'll end up far worse than you already are." She turned to go, not even bothering to hide or move silently, daring him to come after her.

Instead, Daredevil remained where he was, trying to process everything she had said. Shampoo hadn't blamed him? Hadn't regarded him as a failure for not protecting her? It was something he had never considered. He had never thought of anything from her perspective. Elektra's words about his self-centeredness cut deep. He had never thought of Shampoo having been anything but the seven year old he had adored with all his heart. But that girl was gone, and he could never bring her back. Somehow, his mind had become fixated on that one idea, almost to the exclusion of all else. He had been intent on attaining something he could never have: a chance to pick up where he left off.

And perhaps even more importantly was the knowledge that Shampoo had not held his failure against him. Had in fact wished him well, putting Mousse before herself. Tears rushed to his eyes as he felt absolution for his sins visited on him in a way even God himself could not do.

Mousse removed his mask, allowing the night air to wash over his bare flesh as, for the first time since he was eight, he began to cry.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Elektra was almost out of the structure when she saw the aged figure, barely coming up waist high, waiting near the place she had chosen to exit the building. Reflexively she tensed up, though she sensed a power in the woman that would have put the late and unlamented Snakeroot to shame.

It was obvious Stick wanted to talk, so Elektra paused, content to wait for the moment.

"Thank you for helping my protégé," Stick said.

"I spoke only the truth," Elektra said blandly.

"I know, and he does too, or he wouldn't be in the process of moving on like he is back there. Now the question is what are you going to do? I know enough about the Hand that eliminating the Snakeroot won't stop them. Oh, it might make them back off for a while, but as long as they exist they'll never stop trying to kill you."

"Then perhaps I should cease to exist," Elektra said, and this time her tone was thoughtful.

"Like Shampoo did?" Stick asked.

The way the question was phrased made Elektra uneasy. It spoke of knowledge the crone could not possibly possess. Most likely it was a probe for information. "She is gone forever." And it was the truth. The truth was always easier to speak than a lie. It was one of the basic tenants of one who dealt in the latter.

"I already told you I believe you," Stick insisted. "So, you think if Elektra… dies, that will stop the Hand? Maybe it will. There are different kinds of deaths, after all."

Elektra nodded. The crone was good, and the assassin had the terrible feeling that under these conditions, she was outclassed even more badly than she had been against the Snakeroot. "Yes. Shampoo knew of a method that her tribe would sometimes use. They had a saying. 'When a life can no longer be lived, then it is time to cast it, and everything related to it, aside forever so that a new one could be chosen.' And they had an ancient place where the Gods would help them choose what life it is they should lead. I believe that ancient tradition will serve me well."

"Perhaps it will," Stick murmured mostly to herself. "In any case, good luck. May you find the type of death you seek."

"And you." Elektra felt an inexplicable kinship toward the woman. Almost a mother figure, which was something she never really had. Not that it mattered now, at the end of things.

Elektra turned away from Stick and resumed her journey, heading west to where her death, and future, lay.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

End fic

DB Sommer: Member of the Fanfiction Mailing List since '97. Come on and join the fun for some good C+C and stories. Just send an email to with 'subscribe ffml' in subject line and you're in. 


	18. Act II Chap5 Steel Lilies in the Field

Prologue

"…And it is the decision of this court that Saginomiya Machine is declared bankrupt and all of its remaining assets seized in order to be sold off and pay its tremendous debts. This will include all of the Saginomiyas' private holdings, as agreed to by the late Masahiro Saginomiya, who put all of his worldly possessions up as collateral." The judge pounded his gavel, judgment rendered.

Seated on the defendant's side, Asuka Saginomiya shot out of her chair and pounded on the tabletop with her teenaged fist. "You can't do this! This is an outrage!"

"Sit down," her lawyer, Takaguchi, tugged at her sleeve, but she shrugged off his hand.

The judge pounded his gavel again. "Order in the court. Miss Saginomiya, I have been tolerant of your numerous outbursts due to the recent loss of your father in this very courtroom and the severity of your financial situation, but enough is enough."

"It is not enough!" Asuka screeched. "This is a travesty of justice! It's Kunou Industries which should be on trial here. We had that military contract in the bag until they bribed Councilman Orihara into giving it to them. They're responsible for the stress inflicted on my father that led to this trial and his heart attack. Why aren't they here instead of me?"

"Knock it off or you're going to be hit with a slander suit," Takaguchi hissed.

"Let him try. Everyone knows he's crooked." Asuka turned to the judge. "Your honor, all I need is one more month. SM is on the verge of creating a battle armor that will revolutionize warfare. We'll be back in the black by the end of the year."

The judge shook his head. "I'm sorry, Miss Saginomiya. This court's decision is final. Case adjourned." The judge rose from his seat, ruffled his robes, and exited the courtroom, heading to his chambers.

Lacking a government minion to slake her rage upon, Asuka turned on her lawyer. "You incompetent shyster! A first year law student could have won that case!"

The lawyer turned red as he threw his papers into his open briefcase. "I've had enough out of you, you spoiled bitch. No one could possibly have saved your company. I only took this case because your father was like a brother to me, god rest his soul. If he had died before the trial started I would never have picked this up. Now, I'm sorry you lost everything, but you shouldn't have any problems getting back on your feet. You're a savant in engineering, second only to Kodachi Kunou—"

"I'm better than Kodachi ever was!" Asuka shouted shrilly. "She doesn't have half of my intelligence, looks, or grace! She couldn't build an erector set without instructions! The only way she managed to steal my International Scientific Community Achievement Award was by sleeping with the judges!"

"I somehow doubt that. There were five of them, and it was a unanimous decision."

"It just proves what a slut she is."

"Three of them were women."

"And that she would go to any lengths to win."

Takaguchi tried to backpedal. "Look, I'm sorry I mentioned your rival's name."

"She is not a rival. A rival is someone who is almost an equal. Kodachi Kunou isn't fit to wash my toilet. Why are you speaking so highly of her?" Asuka's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "She paid you to lose the case, didn't she? It wasn't your incompetence, you deliberately threw it!"

Takaguchi held his hands up in equal parts surrender and disgust. "That's it. I've had enough of your paranoid ramblings. What you need isn't a lawyer: it's therapy." He turned and headed for the door.

Asuka waved her fist at his back. "Traitor! I'll make you pay! You, that crooked politician, and Kunou Industries! I'll make you all pay!"

A bailiff cleared his throat, announcing his presence next to Asuka. Snapped temporarily out of the worst of her blinding rage, she realized that everyone in the room was staring at her, and that the bailiff appeared ready, almost eager, to throw her out. Composing herself, she made a production of sniffing disdainfully to everyone in the room, then turned imperiously upon her heel and exited, dark clouds of vengeance permeating her thoughts.

As the sixteen-year old left the court building, she stared up at the sky as if seeking divine assistance, not for her financial situation, but for how to make those that had schemed against her pay. She had no assets, monetary or otherwise, and would be tossed out of her ancestral home within days. She had never bothered saving any of her salary, assuming her family's fortune would always be there and she could dip into it. She had spent her personal funds on being a high profile debutante and financing expensive private science projects which, while emotionally satisfying, were money pits. Now she was left with nothing, not even a chauffeur to drive her home. What was she to do?

Asuka had barely made it a hundred meters along the sidewalk before an expensive stretch limousine pulled up beside her. The window in the back rolled down and a plain-looking gentleman, dressed in a ten-thousand-dollar suit, stuck his head out the window. "Miss Saginomiya? My name is Roquat."

Asuka looked the curious, nondescript, man over. While she had known many people who rode in such vehicles, this wasn't one of them. "Funny, you don't look like a Nome King."

Roquat shrugged. "It is the name given to me by my employer. It amuses her to make it seem as though kings and queens are at her beck and call, though the reality is very close to the illusion."

Already tiring of his presence, she snapped, "What do you want?"

"My employer heard you have fallen on hard times. I have been entrusted to offer you two things."

"What are they?" Asuka asked suspiciously.

"The first is condolences on your father's death. My employer also lost her father at an early age and knows what it is like."

"I hope the second thing you offer has some actual value," Asuka spat acidly.

"It does. My employer is aware of your advances in armor technology. She wishes to offer you a lucrative contract if you're willing to continue developing the SL-000 series battle armor."

Lucrative meant money. Lots of money. That perked her ears up. "How much?"

"Ten million dollars American for the project. An additional five if it's completed to satisfaction."

Asuka felt like laughing. No one tossed around money like that. It was probably a prank concocted by Kodachi Kunou to rub Asuka's nose in her abject misery. "And who would I be working for?"

Roquat told her.

That changed everything. The laughter inside died, replaced by hope. "Okay, you are legitimate. Very well, I agree to your terms. It's not as if I have anything else to do." And fifteen million dollars was certainly enough seed money to hatch her plans for righteous vengeance. Perhaps things were going to turn out for the best after all.

She entered the limousine, the dark cloud surrounding her made brighter by blood-tinged fantasies of the deaths of all who had wronged her.

Xxxxxxxx

Avenging Act II, Chapter 5 Steel Lilies in the Field

Any and all C+C appreciated. You can contact me at: the previous chapters and my other works are stored at:

Larry F's new address at:  
http/ And also Angcobra is now storing fics, at http/ At newer works at Mediaminer disclaimer: I don't own any of the Marvel characters or other characters from the numerous animes which are within.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

From her position nearly thirty feet away, Kodachi Kunou nodded at the technician standing at the control panel to signal the start of the test. It wasn't as though she were incapable of operating the controls, but it would be perceived as unseemly for one of her stature in Kunou Industries to personally operate things when she could employ someone else to do it, and appearance was everything to the members of the government's defense committee who stood by her side. They were the ones who decided which businesses received the fat defense contracts they had to offer, and Kodachi intended for them to look no further than Kunou Industries.

In a way, the whole decision process was absurd since it was obvious anything Kunou Industries (and Kodachi personally) designed would far outstrip anything some minor manufacturing company could create. As though anyone at Saginomiya Machine, which had finally gone under a few weeks ago, could compare to her genius. It was true they actually had snared a contract away from KI once; Kodachi remembered how her father had raged over that one since the weapon system the government had purchased was far inferior to KI's. She had taken the offense personally since it was the first weapon system she had developed. She had improved a great deal after that, so much so that KI hadn't lost out on a government contract since.

Now Kodachi stood in the place her father used to, next to the five members of the committee. She would have preferred to conduct the test outdoors, but the energy cannon they had developed was still top secret, and there was no telling what sort of eavesdropping equipment might be trained on KI's exterior by rival companies. No, it was best to keep the cannon under wraps. The warehouse-sized testing facility would serve its intended purpose and the committee would be impressed by the results. She guaranteed it. After her demonstration, it would take a couple of weeks at the most before they gave the contract to KI.

At her signal two powerful robotic arms maneuvered a ten-ton piece of impra-crete --which was five times more durable than regular concrete-- into position. Despite the size of the slab, the arms were powerful enough to move it efficiently, and once the giant block was in the right spot, the multi-faceted crystal at the end of the cannon's barrel began to power up. A rainbow glow, almost hypnotic, formed at the tip. Kodachi signaled to the technician once again, and he touched a button. A second later the rainbow glow coalesced into a twenty-centimeter wide beam of white energy. It punched through the slab with ease, sending small pieces of shrapnel everywhere. Rather than continuing on, it dissipated one meter on the other side of the rock. The beam disappeared, leaving behind a twenty-centimeter wide hole as the only evidence it had ever existed.

Kodachi turned to the men. "As you can see, the XE-74, or 'Safecracker' as we like to call it, can blast its way through impra-crete like it was paper mache. Enemy in a bunker? Hiding in a fog bank would provide more protection. The same can be said for titanium, osmium, or any alloy."

"What about adamantium?" one of the men asked.

"Nothing can cut through adamantium. If anything could, we would hardly call it 'indestructible', now could we?" All the men laughed at that. "It can cut through adamantium alloy, though it would take time and a sufficient power supply to sustain the beam," Kodachi informed them.

"That beam fizzled pretty quickly once it got through the impra-crete," one of the men pointed out.

"That's because it was set to do so," Kodachi said with a delighted smile since the question proved a perfect segue. "One of the safety features of the Safecracker is that it has a precise range, mitigating collateral damage. If you're trying to hit a target that moves out of the path of the beam, you don't have to worry about it following through and hitting something you don't want destroyed."

That met with a murmur of agreement from the members.

Kodachi continued, "While the Safecracker is too big to be carried around by hand, it can be mounted on a large armored vehicle or plane, or numerous cannons can be put on a ship. The only small disadvantage is its rate of fire is slow, but that's because it's intended to attack heavy, reinforced targets, rather than small ones with few defenses."

The others nodded again. The one nearest to Kodachi, Councilman Orihara, said, "I think we've seen all we need to. It is an impressive piece of work, Miss Kunou. By all means, send us the specs on the cannon and we'll look them over."

Kodachi bowed. "Thank you for your interest. Let me assure you despite KI being under new management, we will not only continue to perform admirably for our government, but exceed our previous performance."

The members nodded and headed out of the testing facility. As they moved away, Orihara stopped and turned, walking back to Kodachi. "Could I have a private word with you, Miss Kunou?"

"Certainly." Kodachi prepared herself to answer any questions the councilman might have. He was the head of the committee and, from what her father had always said, was the one truly responsible for the decisions. The others were little more than window dressing to appease the bureaucracy. Whatever way Orihara went, the others were sure to follow.

Orihara said, "I'm overjoyed at seeing you take over the reins here. What happened to your father and brother was a tragedy, especially since you were believed dead as well."

Kodachi idly scratched at her concealed chest plate in remembrance of the piece of shrapnel located so close to her heart. "I still cling to the hope they will be found."

"As do I," Orihara seconded. "But in the meantime, it falls to you to run the company. KI employs thousands of people all across Japan. If something unpleasant were to happen to your company, like your military contracts drying up, bad things might happen. At the very least there would be massive layoffs, and perhaps your company would go under, like Saginomiya just did."

"We are the pinnacle of technology in all of Japan, if not the world. Saginomiya had all the cutting edge expertise of a high school science club, and you know it, which is why you come to us when you want the best weapons in the world."

Orihara rubbed his chin in contemplation. "Well, there was that one time we went with SM and that sonic-based weapon."

"Pure lunacy on your part which confounds me to this day," Kodachi informed him. "Our amplisonic shatterguns were far more effective than their ridiculous wave motion rifle."

"That's a matter of opinion," Orihara insisted. "There are so many intangibles to consider, which is why landing these lucrative contracts is so cutthroat."

"Is there a point to this conversation?" Kodachi asked, temper rising.

"Yes, your father and I had something of an… arrangement."

"I have no idea of what you are talking about." Though Kodachi insisted she didn't, the tone in her voice indicated she had an idea of what the councilman was implying.

"I thought as much. It's not the sort of thing one casually mentions." Orihara seemed to consider something, then shrugged his shoulders, as though he had come to a decision. "There is an organization I am rather fond of that your father donated heavily to on certain occasions, usually right after we met in circumstances similar to the one you and I are in right now."

Kodachi was tired of the vague innuendos. "Are you implying that he bribed you for our contracts?"

"No, no, no," Orihara said quickly. "Not bribes. These were contributions to the Hokkaido Reclamation Project. I'm sure he kept records of the donations. Look into it and you'll see." Orihara started to walk away, then turned back around. "I'd hurry and look it up, though. We're scheduled to check out Fujikawa-Stane's new missile that does many of the same things your cannon does, and has the advantage of being more portable and having a greater range. It makes things very neck-and-neck between you. I'd hate to see you lose out to someone that's more interested in securing these sorts of contracts."

He laughed and departed, leaving Kodachi uncertain of what to do. What she did feel was an insecurity that had been absent a moment ago. It was time to look into her father's private files and see what he had to say about the matter.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"And I want that Blaze Cannon hooked up to the forearm and power pack. It's taken a week to get it to work right, and now that it is, I want it where it belongs." Asuka Saginomiya let out an exasperated sigh at the engineers and technicians that were almost more hindrance than help. Tragically, they were supposedly among the best in the world. Incompetents, every last one of them. Asuka had come to the realization that Hell was being brilliant in a world full of stupid people.

Despite the ineptitude of the fools Asuka had been saddled with, she had guided them to nearly completing the SL-000. Every centimeter of its white and red armor was as magnificent as she had predicted, if not more so. She basked in the glow of her masterpiece. It was large, with bulky arms and legs (one of her idiot subordinates had the audacity to compare it to the original armor the 'Scrap Iron' Rose used). There was a large square unit, which looked almost like a backpack, attached to the back where the additional power supply and her most powerful weapon were housed. The forearms were a bit larger than originally planned to compensate for the newer weapons she had mounted. The 'boots' of the armor were also larger in order to house the additional engines for the flight system she had just installed. Now the armor could generate the airspeed of an ground-to-air missile, though at that velocity it wasn't very maneuverable. Still, it was faster than any mere jet fighter. And then there were technicians who were in the process of adding the Blaze Cannon to the forearm. It appeared to be little more than a box with an opening on one end and wires leading from it along the length of the arm and into the back power unit, a deception if ever there was one given the E-Beam's power. In the center of the chest was a triangle that housed a laser, as well as her secret weapon. A single cyclopean slit in the helmet was the only apparent form of external sight, but in reality there were a variety of internal sensor systems that overcame the seeming weakness.

Asuka satisfaction lasted all of ten seconds, then she spotted Minoru Mochizuki, the 'Simpering Accountant from Whine Country', approaching. As bad as her technicians were, Minoru was worse than all of them put together. In the good old days, when she was allowed free rein in her company, she could have ordered him silent or, preferably, had him fired. Now she was perpetually harassed by his nasal voice as he rambled on about 'cost overruns' and 'efficiency reports', as though such things mattered when building a work of art. She briefly considered pretending not to notice him and making a run for the nearest exit, but forced herself to remain where she was. The only concession she made to herself was forcing him to come to her, which he quickly did.

"Miss Saginomiya, I need a word with you." The look on his face said it all.

She sighed dramatically, but maintained her cool. "Yes?"

"I've just been going over some figures." He held out a stack of folders in her direction. "Frankly, this whole project has exceeded cost projections significantly in nearly every aspect."

Asuka rolled her eyes at the imbecile. "Yes, well, by definition a 'projection' is a guess, and I don't see how you can hold me responsible because a few know-nothing bean counters, like yourself, can't figure out how much a sack of rice will cost next week."

The insult didn't seem to register. "You've gone more than one billion yen over budget on this suit alone so far. There's no sense in us mass producing the unit if it's so expensive no one can afford to buy it."

Asuka felt like strangling the little weasel. "Look, it's a groundbreaking prototype. We're working on a new technology, and there are bound to be a few bugs and other unexpected problems that crop up which result in a higher than expected initial cost. But I wouldn't expect someone with a mere accounting degree to understand such technical matters."

She had hoped that would end the discussion, but Minoru pressed on. "Prof. Kuroki informs me that everything was going fine until you started incorporating the weapons and flight systems from the M.A.U.L.E.R battle armor we got from Cordco into your design. According to Prof. Kuroki, the systems aren't really that compatible and it's taking a huge amount of time and money to make them so, which are where the cost overruns are occurring."

Asuka would have words with that traitorous Kuroki, once she rid herself of Minoru's presence. "Which proves what I was saying about a high initial cost that won't be reflected in later units. And I need those things. The incorporation of the M.A.U.L.E.R.'s weapon systems will give the SL-000 the firepower of a small army. It 'll be invincible."

"We don't want to market the SL-000 as a stand-alone weapon system. We are going to sell it as a standard unit with optional augmentation packages. Certainly your current design would be ideal for taking on a tank battalion, but what if it's needed for reconnaissance, or rescue operations, or hostage removal? Everything you're adding would lessen the unit's effectiveness for those sorts of operations."

"Don't play games with me," Asuka snorted in derision. "I know your primary concern is marketing this as military hardware. That's where the real money's made."

Minoru shot her a level glare. "The SL-000 is intended to be a multi-purpose power armor. However, in the case of its military applications, it's been decided that it would be more effective to market it with the intention of it operating in three man teams. It would be similar to Cordco's Raider armor, but with the base unit being more powerful and more versatile with various weapon packages, rather than in-built ones like the Raiders had."

"How devious."

"How businesslike, and if you can't see that, it's no wonder your company went bankrupt."

Asuka simmered in rage, but rather than continue her diatribe, she took a deep breath and calmed herself. "I'm convinced what I have is superior to your intentions, and in any case it's irrelevant. I managed to incorporate the Blaze Cannon into the SL today. I need to put some finishing touches on it, but expect the armor to be completed in the next three days. I can work up a demonstration for you. If the higher-ups don't like the additional weapon systems, I can reduce it back to the base unit in under a week, and I'll subtract the costs from my salary."

The revelation of the armor's completion and Asuka's voluntary financing of any additional problems soothed Minoru's concerns. "Very well, but see to it the armor is ready when you say."

"Very well," Asuka said. "There's just one other favor I'd like to ask. I want to pilot the armor. I know it better than anyone, and am the obvious choice to put it through its paces."

Minoru shot her a look as though she had asked him if she could scrap the project. "Don't be ridiculous. We have professional pilots who are specialized in the use of battle armor. They will be demonstrating it in the trial runs. You stick to doing what you know, making armor, and leave the flying to the professionals."

Asuka shrugged her shoulders, dismissing the matter. "Very well. I was simply overeager in showing off my baby, and personally ushering in a new age in high-tech warfare, but I understand. The pilots probably would do a better job. In any event I can have a report on the final test results on your desk by Wednesday."

That mollified Minoru. "Very well. It's good to know this project will finally be completed, and that there are measures in place if it continues on any longer."

"There certainly are. Now, if you're finished?"

"I am." Far happier than when he had entered the room, Minoru headed for the door.

Asuka smiled sweetly at him as he left. Once the lab door slid shut behind him, she picked up a phone and dialed a number. "Arisugawa, this is Saginomiya. Send up the material I requested, would you?"

Asuka hung up the phone, sat back in a chair and waited. It only took a handful of minutes for the door to the lab to open, and a deliveryman to roll in a cart that bore a number air tanks and a gas mask. He had Asuka sign for the material, then departed.

Several of the workers watched as the material was wheeled in. One of them looked at it in bewilderment. "What is that?"

"Somna Gas," Asuka said as she examined the tops to the tanks.

"What for? There's no room on the SL for gas."

"Steel Lily," Asuka said.

"What?"

"Steel Lily. The SL in the project name means 'Steel Lily'."

One of the technicians asked, "Isn't that your nickname from MIT?"

"Yes, and it's about time the world knew that, since it will shortly make Kodachi Kunou's Iron Rose obsolete." She continued playing with the controls.

One of the other technicians said, "That still doesn't explain how we're going to put that gas in the armor."

"The gas isn't for the armor, it's for you." And with that she slipped the gas mask over her face and opened a valve to disperse the gas in the room. It acted quickly, dropping nearly everyone in their tracks the instant they inhaled. Some people tried to hold their breath and make it toward the door to escape, but they found it locked and the exit code failed to work. No one had time to take a truly deep breath, and soon they were lying unconscious on the floor.

While everyone succumbed to the gas, Asuka quickly walked over to the armor and opened it up. With the interior exposed, she stepped inside, slipping her arms and legs into the proper spots. Once settled in, the armor closed up, making it air tight and expelling the gas that had been trapped inside. There was a bit of shifting as the insides molded to fit perfectly, just as she had designed it to. She booted up the armor, and all its capabilities, for the first time. She had lied to her little number cruncher. The armor was ready now that the Blaze Cannon had been hooked up. She had given Minoru a chance for the easy way out by allowing her to use her armor, but he had refused, leaving her no choice but to hijack it. She couldn't wait until she had revenge on all those that had wronged her; she needed it now, and the Steel Lily was the perfect tool for the job.

Asuka smiled blissfully as the diagnostics showed everything was in working order. She had to move quickly, before her employer brought some of her numerous resources against Asuka and ended her quest for vengeance before she took a second step toward it. But first there were some measures she had to take before leaving. She walked over to a terminal and loaded a program in that would erase all the work on the armor. This was her child, and she was damned if anyone else would be taking it from her. She wasn't concerned about any of the other morons on the project being able to duplicate her work, she had been too secretive about it. Oh, they could replicate some of the motor controls and advanced systems, but she had kept all the truly inspired innovations to herself. They could produce an armor that was slightly superior to the Raider suits, but that was about it. The most advanced battle armor in the world belonged exclusively to Asuka Saginomiya, and it was going to stay that way.

The Steel Lily was going to set the world on fire, but first, vengeance waited.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Roquat bowed before his mistress as she sat in the massive command center of her company. "I am afraid I bear grim tidings, Mistress. Miss Saginomiya ran off with the prototype she was developing and destroyed all the information on its manufacture. It is unlikely we will be able to duplicate it."

The woman considered the information. "Saginomiya has an almost pathological hatred of Kunou Industries, does she not?"

Roquat nodded. "Her psychiatric evaluation turned that up, among her various other mental issues, yes. She bears a particular malice toward Kodachi Kunou."

The woman smiled. "I do believe this fiasco might turn toward our advantage. This was an off-the-books project anyway, but make certain all traces of Miss Saginomiya's employment and that the armor was manufactured here cease to exist, and that everyone involved in the project knows to keep quiet about it. That way we'll have plausible deniability for whatever might happen to poor Kodachi Kunou and her company. If we're lucky, KI will be ours by the end of the week and Saginomiya will be wanted for murder. And if she fails, then we'll know that SL-000 armor wasn't all that we thought it would be."

Roquat bowed. "I am humbled by your brilliance, as ever."

"As well you should be, Roquat. As well you should be."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Kodachi Kunou looked over the computer screen displaying her father's private files for the third time, not wanting to believe what she saw. The truth was always the hardest thing to swallow, she was learning. That bastard, Orihara, had given her a most bitter pill to choke down. In the last five years, every time a military contract with him as head of the panel came up, her father had donated large sums of money to the Hokkaido Reclamation Project. On the surface it appeared to be a small outfit trying to reclaim land from the ocean, but a little investigating proved that either they were incredibly inefficient, or someone was siphoning off large amounts of cash from it under the table. Since the director of the HRP was an old school friend of Orihara's, it didn't take a genius to figure out how the pie was being split over there.

It irritated Kodachi to no end that that pig was extorting money, made worse because Kunou Industries clearly should have won all the contracts without the bribes. Apparently her father had not paid Orihara off once, which was how Saginomiya Machine won that single time. Since then her father had caved in to Orihara, and everything that should have been theirs in the first place was, just with a little off the top.

There was also some other interesting information about Orihara and some of KI's rivals, but at the moment it was of no use. Kodachi had a decision to make. It was obvious her father had not come by this information by legal means. Worse, KI had already paid Orihara a number of bribes. Blowing the whistle on him at this point would still leave KI's reputation in shambles, even if it was her late father who had done the bribing. It was also painfully obvious Orihara would make good on his threat and give the contract to someone else if Kodachi failed to pay. Threatening him in her guise as Iron Rose would probably be a bad idea as well. While there was a chance he would cave in, he might claim that Kodachi was threatening a government official for the contract, rather than it being in retaliation for the bribe. Other government officials might feel endangered by Kodachi's actions in any case, and if they felt threatened, they might threaten back, and the government of Japan had a lot more power than Kodachi Kunou. The same would apply if she asked for any of her Avenger allies to do it, and she wasn't comfortable with them knowing of her father's actions. She was at an impasse.

Pride, responsibility, and honor weighed heavily on her soul as she sat silently in her office and pondered her options.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Councilman Orihara sat at his dining room table, alone as he savored the remains of his dinner, a gourmet meal prepared by his personal chef. All was in place for tonight. Recent death threats had necessitated the presence of a highly trained bodyguard that remained outside his room, but it was hardly a distraction. This was his palace, in a manner of speaking, and quite impregnable. On the outside it appeared to be a traditional home, one that had been in his family for generations, but the huge lot it resided on was worth hundreds of millions of yen and reflected his true wealth. He had his own private gardens, reflecting pool, and numerous other displays of affluence across his property, all of it guarded by one of the best security systems money could buy. He had no fears, not here, in the center of his power.

Orihara mulled over the idea of having his favorite mistress come over for a little bit of fun when there was a knock on the door. Somewhat irritated at the interruption of his thoughts, he ordered it opened, and his manservant appeared with a phone in hand, informing Orihara that a call had come on his private line. If it was on that line, it was of utmost importance. Only people of consequence knew the number. He accepted the phone and dismissed the servant. Prying eyes and overheard statements had spilled more than one secret throughout history, especially by underlings who all too often went unnoticed, despite them being underfoot.

Orihara spoke into the receiver. "Hello… Oh it's you, Miss Kunou. I'm very glad to hear from you, and so soon. I hope you've given the matter some thought…. You have? Excellent! And what's your answer?"

A loud whine came from outside the room, momentarily distracting the councilman. "Hold on. I just heard something odd." He placed the phone down on the table, next to the mostly devoured body of a Peking Duck, and walked toward the door, intent on reaming out the bodyguard for distracting him during an important conversation.

Orihara threw open the door and saw the remains of something that at one time might have been human, but was now just a charred hunk of meat, not all that different from what lay on his dinner plate. Before the councilman could complete his thoughts, a loud thump caught his attention. He looked down the hall in the direction of the noise and saw a large, white and red armored figure approach. He had been around military hardware long enough to recognize a battle suit, even if he didn't recognize what type it was.

Everything fell into place. Backing away, Orihara pleaded. "I have money. I can give you twice, no, ten times whatever it is you're being paid."

The armored figure raised its right arm, the one with the Blaze Cannon attached to it. "I'm being paid a pound of flesh, and let me assure you you'll be paying far more then ten times that."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Kodachi Kunou heard a loud noise, and then the phone went dead. She looked at it and shrugged. Perhaps the weasel had had second thoughts about taking bribes. So be it. It suited her just as well. It would be up to him to contact her if he wished to try and shake her down for money a second time, because she wasn't about to approach him and ask about the matter.

She hung up the phone, relieved at being able to sleep peacefully, at least for tonight.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"…And early this morning, Councilman Takao Orihara was found dead, along with his entire household staff and several bodyguards, in what has been theorized as a professional hit by some sort of criminal organization. Councilman Orihara had made many enemies over time due to his power and influence in politics, and there were rumors that he had been engaged in illegal activities himself. Also in the news--"

"Good riddance to crooked politicians." Sanso Takaguchi turned off the radio in his car and gazed briefly at the ocean as it passed by. He always enjoyed the view of ocean from the coastal highway. He took a moment to enjoy the briny air, then switched his attention to the upcoming meetings today. He had a conference to overview some details about a recent case with a client. That should take about forty minutes. Then he could have his secretary put in that new client. That would take an hour fifteen if he stretched it out and explained things very slowly. Then he had a business luncheon at a nearby café. Ten minutes to get there, and a little over an hour for the meal. With any luck he could charge for five hours work in less than three and a half and get to write off the lunch as a tax deduction. Thank god for that little phrase 'and a portion thereof,' it made life so much easier.

Takaguchi was mentally adding up the hours when there was a loud thump on the roof and he felt the car bounce on its shocks, as though something had landed on the vehicle. Panicked, he hit the brakes, but for some odd reason he kept going at the exact same speed. At first he thought the brakes had gone out, but then realized the car was starting to move not only faster, but higher. His hands clenched his steering wheel so tightly the knuckles turned white. Somewhere in the back of his mind, a rational part said he should try to call for help on his cell phone, but all the other parts preferred remaining paralyzed until something shocked them out of it. Soon he was above the highway, then he ran out of highway and was driving above the ocean with a far more breathtaking view than he had ever experienced. He could feel himself leaning backward as the car rose up in the sky, like a jet that had just taken off.

Watching the ocean traveling beneath his tires was the shock that started everything going. "What's going on!" he screamed at the top of his lungs.

The sound of Asuka Saginomiya's electronically filtered voice came over a loudspeaker from above the car. "Revenge for your betrayal, Judas, and justice for your blatant over-billing." The Steel Lily cut the magnetic hold she had on the car, dropping it into the ocean with Takaguchi inside. At the height he plummeted from and the speed with which he would hit, it might as well have been concrete.

Asuka used a device on the armor to record the moment for posterity.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Kodachi Kunou watched as one of her newest inventions rumbled out of the storage complex and onto the concrete, heading toward the new construction site situated on Kunou Industries property. It was great timing that she should complete it just as they started to tear down the biolabs that used to house the pineapple genetics laboratory. An obsession with pineapples was her father's preoccupation, not hers, and it was time Kunou Industries stuck with mechanical engineering, and not waste money on building the better tropical fruit.

Outwardly the vehicle appeared to be a cross between an octopus and a construction site, which was a fairly accurate comparison. The new vehicle was intended to be multipurpose. It was like a steam roller, crane, forklift, scoop shovel and wrecking crew all in one. While it was so monstrously gigantic it could only be used on large scale construction sites, it was less than half the price of buying all the pieces of equipment individually, and could be operated by half as many people. The advertising branch was a bit leery as test markets had indicated many construction workers were turned off by the vehicle's mish-mash appearance, but Kodachi was convinced it would catch on. The fact that its shakedown run would also be used to save money as she knocked down and rebuilt one of her labs was a bonus and good omen, as far as she was concerned.

Kodachi's cell phone beeped. The display indicated the number was from the security branch of KI. Concerned, she asked, "What is it?"

The head of security said, "Ma'am, radar just picked up an unidentified object moving at a high velocity toward—"

The rest was cut off as a wide beam of ruby energy lanced down from the sky and blew up the prototype construction vehicle.

Kodachi watched as a white and red armored figure landed next to the twisted pieces of metal that had once been her creation. "I think I can identify it." She hung up the phone and dived into the nearest empty office. Luckily she had her attaché case with her, and this newcomer had drawn everyone's attention. That was all the privacy she needed. Within seconds she would don her streamlined Iron Rose armor, and then there would be hell to pay.

xxxxxxxxxx

Outside the building, Steel Lily stared down at the ruins of the ugly monstrosity that she had blown apart. She watched in amusement as people began running away from her in terror.

Activating her loudspeaker, she shouted, "If you thought something like that would be marketable, I'm doing you a favor in blowing it to pieces." She looked around and, realizing she was in the heart of her only remaining enemy's stronghold, decided to have some fun. She started to field test her weapons on every vehicle and smaller target around. Equipment, parts, cars, and even dumpsters were destroyed with her various weapons. While she didn't deliberately target any human beings, she didn't go out of her way to make certain everyone was in the clear when she opened fire either.

After gleefully blowing apart every vehicle in sight, an amusing idea occurred to Steel Lily. She reactivated her loudspeaker and said, "Lowly worker ants of Kunou Industries, hear me now. I demand you hand your employer, Kodachi Kunou, over to me. If you fail to provide me with the person I wish to kill, I will satisfy myself by killing all of you instead. You have five minutes to comply."

"Five seconds is all it will take to finish you off!"

Steel Lily turned in the direction of the voice and got hit with twin repulsor rays for her trouble. Gyroscopes in her armor tried keeping her upright, but the force was too great and she was hurled to the ground. She looked up to see that accursed bodyguard of Kodachi's, the infernal copycat, Iron Rose, flying around.

Reflexively, Steel Lily brought up her Blaze Cannon. The beam of energy hit Iron Rose squarely in the body and sent her hurtling to the ground, her armor smoldering from the intensity of the blast.

Asuka rose to her feet. "I am Steel Lily, you worthless piece of KI crap. Today is the day I prove to the world the greatness of my genius, and the inferiority of that overrated moron, Kodachi Kunou, by peeling that armor off you like a banana."

Iron Rose returned to her feet. "So says someone dressed in a knockoff of my old armor."

"It is not a knockoff!" Steel Lily raged as she fired her Blaze Cannon once again. Iron Rose flew up, avoiding the blast, but Steel Lily had been expecting that. She put full power into her jets and shot up at top speed, a human missile. The speed was so great Iron Rose could do nothing as her foe slammed into her with an airborne tackle that carried them both through the air. A cry of pain escaped Iron Rose's lips as they collided with the very labs that had been slated for destruction.

They landed in the third floor before skidding to a halt. Steel Lily released her hold, a bit disoriented by the experience, and started to rise when a savage fist met her head, knocking her backward. Another blow landed in her stomach, where the armor was thicker, though some damage warnings flashed across her diagnostics display.

Overestimating how much damage the second blow had inflicted, Iron Rose moved too slow as her opponent grabbed her by the helmet with an oversized hand. The smirk under Steel Lily's visor could be felt as she said, "Let's see how you like electricity."

Tens of thousands of volts poured into the black and grey armor. Steel Lily amused herself by guessing how much voltage she'd have to send into the dilapidated piece of useless machinery before it, and the woman inside, succumbed to the amperage.

Her estimate of two hundred thousand was proven wrong as a blow far mightier than any of the others knocked Steel Lily through five rather thick walls and clean out of the building. She flew through the air nearly as fast as she had entering the structure. The ground arrested her flight, leaving a crater in the pavement with the armored warrior in the center.

Iron Rose flew out of the hole Steel Lily had created. She landed next to the crater, hands on her hips, flaunting her superiority. "Ohhohoho! I enjoyed it very much, since I can absorb it and make my armor even more powerful. Let's see if you can say the same." She pointed her own armored gauntlet at the fallen girl. Numerous ribbon-like wires shot out from concealed holes in the forearm and wrapped themselves around the armor. Seconds later, voltage shot down their length.

Unfazed by the electricity, Steel Lily rose to her feet.

Iron Rose cut the power and retracted her ribbons. "I see you can deal with it, not that it takes much intellect to devise armor which can harness electricity."

Tired of this upstart's continued survival, Steel Lily shouted out, "Die!" and opened up with her Blaze Cannon. Again Iron Rose lifted up to the skies. Inside her armor, Asuka smirked at the fool's ineptness in attempting the same evasion twice. She shot up in the air, intent on drilling her foe so hard that there would be nothing left but a splotch of pulped flesh inside her armor.

This time Iron Rose was prepared, her lighter armor far more agile than Steel Lily suspected. The smaller armored figure barely managed an aerial twist which avoided the ram by mere centimeters. Realizing she had missed her target, Steel Lily tried arcing back to hit her on a second pass. However, the massive armor was not built for maneuverability, and the turn arc was large and ponderous. Repulsor beams hit her in the left calf, right where her external engines were located. The beams hit with such force they knocked out the jets on that leg. Unable to compensate for thrust coming from only one side, Steel Lily went out of control, landing headfirst into the ground and leaving a second smaller, but still significant, impact crater behind.

She rose up from the cracked and broken pavement, seething in fury like a pent up volcano. Screaming incoherently she unleashed dozens of blasts from her Blaze Cannon, lighting up the sky with a ruby display. The barrage forced Iron Rose to put everything she had into evading the aerial assault. Her old armor would have been struck a dozen times, but with her Mark II, only a trio of blasts barely nicked her suit.

Steel Lily poured on the bombardment until her weapon suddenly ceased firing. It took several seconds for the lack of fire to register. A quick check showed the Blaze Cannon had overheated and some of the wires leading to the power pack on the back had melted, rendering the weapon non-operational.

Iron Rose used the opportunity to return fire. Twin repulsor beams struck, driving Steel Lily further into the crater she had created. Signs of external damage could finally be seen in the form of some cracks appearing where the beams had impacted.

The flying girl taunted, "It appears your pitiful weapon is broken. I guess you'll have to go back to your basement to create another one."

In response Steel Lily raised her left arm, pointing her fist at her foe. A pill-shaped bolt of energy leapt from it, striking the posturing Iron Rose and sending her spiraling to the ground. Slowly the dark armored hero rose to her feet and the two squared off again.

"Pulse bolt. The farther away you are, the more powerful it gets," Steel Lily explained.

"It just means it'll take longer to defeat you, but I will. Your inexperience and inferior gear is showing."

"The only thing your piece of scrap has going for it is maneuverability. Stand still and you'll be history," Steel Lily shot back.

"That maneuverability is exactly why I switched to a lighter armor. All the firepower in the world means nothing if you can't hit your target," Iron Rose boasted.

"Point taken. Let's see if I can convince you to remain stationary." She pointed over Iron Rose's shoulder and shouted, "Look, innocent bystanders!"

Iron Rose suddenly became aware of the fact their battle had taken them near the main gates of Kunou Industries where people were fleeing in massive numbers, some of them on foot, others in vehicles. There was no way she could protect everyone from Steel Lily, not with the distance between them.

"You can't do it!" Iron Rose shouted.

"Just watch." From the triangle in the center of Steel Lily's chest, a laser shot out toward a passenger shuttle full of people that had been trying to escape. Rather than striking the vehicle, the laser cut through the tires, immobilizing it.

Steel Lily taunted in a teasing voice, "And for my next trick." She aimed the laser much higher this time, cutting through the support of a huge antenna that served as the primary communications for the headquarters. It began toppling toward the stationary bus even as people tried to flee out of it in a mad panic.

Seeing virtually no one would get out in time, Iron Rose rocketed at top speed, catching the teetering antenna before it had descended halfway. It was heavy enough that with the damage her armor had taken, in combination with the power she had used up, she was fighting a losing battle with the structure's weight.

Rather than attacking immediately, Steel Lily rose up in the air, hovering on her jets, despite the damage to one of her legs. From the square shape on her back, several long sheets of thin metal extended, widening and curling forward, almost like the petals of a flower. A golden spark of energy jumped between two of the sheets. A second later several others followed between different petals. Soon a steady steam of sparks jumped between them, flecks of white interspersed in the flow of energy. Within moments there was a solid field of energy leaping between the petals and a nimbus of orange surrounded the white and red armor.

"Suffer the wrath of Steel Lily's most lethal attack: Deathblossom!" A beam of golden energy several times the thickness of the laser burst from her armor's chest.

The last of the shuttle passengers had fled to safety when the Deathblossom beam hit Iron Rose fully in the back. The impact blew her clean through the antenna, cutting it in two, where it crashed to the ground harming no one. Iron Rose herself soared through the air in what was obviously an uncontrolled flight, and landed out of sight.

Steel Lily floated back to the ground, her power supply dangerously low. Deathblossom was by far her most formidable weapon, but also her most draining, and her power level hadn't been that high to begin with. It had actually released more energy than the simulations had shown, and had ruined the circuitry in her chest weaponry, preventing any chance of using the weapon a second time. Even the chest laser was ruined. It would take several minutes for her armor to recharge enough to be considered battle worthy, but Iron Rose would be lucky if she were still alive after taking a direct hit from Deathblossom. Still, it didn't pay to take chances.

Judging by the point of impact and Iron Rose's arc, Steel Lily estimated the body had probably fallen near the edge of Kunou Industries grounds. She made certain she walked slowly before arriving near the location where she guessed her foe had landed. To her surprise, while there was a furrow through the concrete that indicated where Kunou's bodyguard had landed, there was no body. Looking around, Steel Lily spotted several bits of black metal lying near an open warehouse-like structure. So she had been damaged, but not mortally, at least, not yet. But that could easily be rectified.

With her armor recharged to thirty percent, Steel Lily was willing to put that up against whatever remained of Kodachi's pathetic little brainchild. Steel Lily entered the warehouse, her sensors extended at maximum, though they operated at less than half their normal efficiency. It turned out she didn't need the armor's systems to locate her foe amongst the machines in what was some sort of indoor testing facility. Steel Lily's eyes were more than sufficient to see Iron Rose crawling like a pathetic maggot, trying to lift herself up by grabbing onto some control panel, her armor in shambles. The metal was mostly missing from the back where Deathblossom had struck, and cracks ran throughout the whole thing. It was almost certainly inoperable. As wrecked as it was, a band of common street thugs could probably finish off the much overrated bodyguard. One more blast from a pulse bolt was all it would take.

As Steel Lily moved in for the kill, walking slowly so as to savor the moment, Iron Rose turned and held up her hand. Reflexively Steel Lily tensed, expecting another repulsor ray to strike her. Instead the bodyguard cried out, "Wait! Tell me why you're doing this."

For a moment Steel Lily pondered firing anyway, then reconsidered. Her other enemies hadn't truly known why they were going to die. She had been so eager to kill Orihara she had shot him on sight, and Takaguchi hadn't had time to appreciate what had happened to him. Anyone could kill an enemy, making them suffer was the province of the truly talented.

Steel Lily snarled out, "Vengeance! The Kunous cheated me out of my business, my family, and my life, so I'm going to take theirs. I'm going to kill you, your employer, level this entire facility, and then I'm going to have lunch!"

"Killing doesn't solve anything," Iron Rose gasped out.

"Actually, I've found killing my enemies has made everything better." She raised her hands up. "Especially when they underestimate me by thinking…."

She spun, firing pulse bolts into the robotic arms that had been moving the ten-ton piece of rock toward her. The blasts sheared the arms off, sending the masonry to the floor, landing a mere two meters in front of her. She stared at the slab, smiling under her helmet. "…that they can distract me with their inane babble while they try something pathetic like this to stop me."

Behind her, Iron Rose said, "Actually, my talk wasn't the distraction. That thing was."

Steel Lily spun around and found a cannon with a glowing multi-faceted crystal pointing right at her. She brought her arms up again, but it was too late as the beam of energy hit solidly in the chest at near point blank range. The blast lifted her off her feet and embedded her two feet deep into the concrete slab. Her armored form remained there, unmoving, almost like a fossilized piece of technology.

"My armor can still kick your armor's ass," Iron Rose said, then slumped against the control panel.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Visitor for you, Tinfoil Lily."

Asuka turned a contemptuous eye at the prison guard. She mentally marked the woman as being one of the first to fall when she managed to break out of here. Many of the guards and inmates needed to pay for making her time in prison hell. She'd just level the whole goddamn place, once she figured out how to escape and build a new armor. After that, she'd hunt down and kill Kodachi's armored thug, and then the girl herself. Kunou hadn't escaped vengeance; she'd simply prolonged her life for a little while longer. Already Asuka's mind was awhirl with new innovations for her Steel Lily armor. She'd take out that oversized toaster in less than five minutes.

But vengeance was for later. She allowed herself to be led by the guard to the visitors' room. Asuka wondered who had come to visit her. She had kept quiet about her connection to her temporary employer, who hadn't lodged any protests about her actions. Hadn't mentioned anything at all about her being hired there, for that matter. Apparently they were content to keep things quiet, and Asuka was perfectly happy to do the same. There was no one else who would visit her that she was aware of. Certainly no one had since she had arrived.

The guard sat Asuka down in the little cubicle with the transparent glass across from her. To her right was a phone that could be used to communicate with the visitor. Upon identifying who the person on the other side of the glass was, it took everything Asuka had to not try to leap through it, and that was only because she didn't want to injure herself by bouncing off the shatterproof material.

"What do you want, you overrated car mechanic?" Asuka spat into the phone at Kodachi, wishing her words could kill.

Kodachi stared at her through the glass, her gaze placid, as though the knowledge that the person across from her wanted her dead more than anything in the world meant nothing. "I asked around to find out why you wanted to kill me. I thought you might have been behind the disappearance of my father and brother, but there's no way you could have done it. You didn't have any real motive until your company went under, which long after they left."

"If they pop back up, I promise to kill them right after I finish you and that bitch bodyguard of yours," Asuka swore.

Kodachi smiled slightly. "You don't like me because you think my company stole what would have been your military contracts when we bribed Orihara, yes?"

"Of course!" Asuka spat. "The one time you didn't bribe him, Saginomiya Machine won the contract. That's why you started bribing him, because you couldn't compete with us."

Kodachi shook her head. "Actually, when he first shook down Kunou Industries for money, my father refused to pay him. After losing out on the contract, my father investigated the situation. He discovered all of the secret accounts and where Orihara's money came from. Many interesting places, as it turned out. Very many interesting places, including one from Saginomiya Machine. That's why you won the contract. After that one loss, my father simply out-bribed yours. That was why we kept winning contract after contract. It wasn't because you stood on some moral high ground; my father was simply a better cheater than yours was. Well, that and KI makes better things than SM ever did. I just thought you should know you threw away your life based on a lie."

The look of shock on Asuka's face was worth all the broken ribs, sprained muscles, and bruises Kodachi had suffered from the assault at her hands. Kodachi rose from her chair and had turned her back when she heard Asuka bodily hurling herself against the glass, sending a round of vitriolic expletives in her direction. Kodachi privately admitted she probably could have dealt with the situation better, but it had been cathartic. After the beating she had suffered, and the damage inflicted on Kunou Industries, it was the least Asuka deserved.

Perhaps she should have cut Asuka a break. After all, the self-proclaimed Steel Lily had done Kodachi a favor in killing Orihara. The new head of the committee appeared honest, or at least he wasn't trying to extort money from Kunou Industries, allowing the contract to be won on merit, and no one was better than KI.

That meant Asuka had saved Kodachi the money it would have taken to bribe Orihara into not holding out on the contracts. She hadn't liked the idea of bribing him, but crooked or not, that was the way the game was played under Orihara's rules, with the contract going to she who bribed the best. At least the corrupt politician had inadvertently done his job by choosing the best weapons, even if it wasn't for the right reasons. Kodachi would have been reluctantly willing to do the same things her father had when it came to Orihara. She would have been damned if she'd allow Kunou Industries to go the way Saginomiya Machine had for her pride. But it hadn't happened, so what difference did it really make?

It was with a clean conscience she left Asuka and the prison behind, ready to enjoy yet another day of her wonderful life.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

End Fic

End notes: Asuka's armor design is an amalgamation of Iron Man's old foes, Mauler (which stood for Mobile Armed Utility Laser: E-Beam Revised) and the oneshot Steel Samurai. 


	19. Act II Chap6: Not Startling Revelations

Avenging Act II, Chapter 6 Not So Startling Revelations

Any and all C+C appreciated. You can contact me at: the previous chapters and my other works are stored at:

Larry F's new address at:  
http/ also Angcobra is now storing fics, at http/ At newer works at Mediaminer disclaimer: I don't own any of the Marvel characters or other characters from the numerous animes which are within.

Forward: This chapter has a bit more character interaction than the last few.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Toji Yamamoto, the self-proclaimed '3-D' (Dashing, Debonair, and Drop-Dead handsome) anchorman of Channel 4 News sat in his dressing room, delighted for the first time in weeks. Ever since that annoying pest, Akemi Shutaro, had upstaged him during the Hornet incident he hadn't been able to think straight. It just wasn't fair. He had his butt handed to him by a three-inch tall girl while Akemi had snagged an exclusive interview with the very villain that had humiliated him. People even had the audacity to suggest (though not in his presence) that she should be the anchor, as though the frigid bitch could cover the news better than him. It was ridiculous. She didn't possess half his experience when it came to ferreting out a story. Her delivery was atrocious. She wouldn't sleep with him. The only thing she had going for her was luck in being in the right place at the right time, and luck was no substitute for skill.

No, she was completely unacceptable for the job, and he was about to prove it. It had taken all the pull he had with station management to get Akemi reassigned. Now she was putting together a "major story" on the street performers in the Shibuya area. Of course, everyone knew the only street performers in Shibuya were mimes. Interviewing mimes was the equivalent of reporter suicide. When that bitch turned in the unacceptable report, the top brass would have the excuse Toji needed to have her demoted. But Toji would make himself seem the good guy when he insisted she be kept on as his personal gopher.

"It's good to be 'the man'." He chortled to himself in the mirror. And it was a chortle. He was an important person. Important people didn't laugh: they chortled.

As he fantasized Akemi threatening to club a mime to death with her microphone if he didn't say something, a commotion out in the hallway interrupted his daydream. Perturbed (and he was perturbed, not annoyed, since important people never stooped to annoyance) he went to the door and looked out in the hallway. The source was a technician who raced toward the control room as fast as his spindly legs could carry him.

"What's going on?" Toji asked.

The technician paused for a moment. "We're going to a live feed on some late-breaking news. One of the reporters in Shibuya is live on the scene with a super-villain. Not only is he knocking over a bank, but he grabbed the person she was interviewing from right in front of the camera. Can you believe it? We're going to scoop everyone."

The technician hurried off, leaving Toji to wail impotently at the injustice of fate.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"How can it be that I, Gypsy Moth, one of the greatest super-villains of our era, am unable to knock over a simple bank?" Teshigawara Suguru grumbled to himself. He fondled one of the fake insect wings sewn into the back of his costume while he considered the matter. Well, perhaps his plan did have a few flaws in it, but he had been certain his cloth drill could handle a mere fifteen-centimeter thick titanium vault door. Perhaps he should have asked to borrow one of the late Living Laser's weapons from the Crimson Cowl before setting out to make his fortune.

The sounds of struggle came from one of the cloth cocoons that lined the ceiling of the bank, catching his attention. At least that had gone as planned. He had used his ability to telekinetically control cloth to reweave everyone's garments into a form of confinement, hanging them from the ceiling. The cocoon design was simply inspired. It went perfectly with his insect motif.

Gypsy Moth turned his attention to the hanging man, who continued shifting around inside the cocoon. "If you've got something to say, say it, don't just shoot me dirty looks… Oh! That's right. You're with the Legion of Mimes." That had been his other stroke of luck, capturing the team of superheroes that had been lying in wait for him outside the bank. But he had shown them by capturing their entire roster on nationwide television. Now Gypsy Moth's career was made. All he had to do was get into the vault, grab the money, and he'd have it all.

The super-villain released one of the dozen white-faced men that had been so easily incapacitated. He warned, "Don't try anything, or we'll find out if my cloth drill can bore its way through flesh better than steel doors."

The mime began pantomiming. Gypsy Moth watched closely, speaking aloud to make certain he understood things correctly. "You're… not… a… superhero…. You… and… your… companions… are… just… ordinary… mimes." Gypsy Moth shook his head. "Impossible! You attacked me as soon as I appeared. Only a superhero would try to stop a super-villain."

The mime began signing again.

"You… thought… I… was… another… street… performer… trying… to… muscle… in… on… your… turf…." Gypsy Moth bristled. "How dare you imply that I, a great and powerful super-villain, would have anything in common with some pretentious avant garde clown! Especially when I'm wearing what is obviously ultra-stylish super-villain garb." He spun around, displaying his brown and blue body suit, the antenna projecting from the cowl's headpiece and the transparent insect wings jouncing about. "For that insult, I shall crush you!"

Just was Gypsy Moth was about squeeze the mime's clothing so tight his face paint would come off, a tremendous explosion rocked the building. The villain's mouth dropped open as a hammer flew through one of the walls of the bank, creating a huge hole, before returning through the aperture it had created.

There was no time to react as, from the opposite side, a huge green form hurtled through the wall as though it were made of paper, landing nearby.

A door opened at the front of the bank, heralding a shield-toting redhead. "Doors, guys! Doors! It's okay to use them."

The Hulk turned to Bucky. "Shield Girl is just jealous because she can't smash through walls like Hulk."

"Yeah. It's all I can do to keep from turning as green as you in envy," she said flatly.

"Hulk knew," he said smugly.

Thor emerged from the hole Mjolnir had made. She leveled her hammer at Gypsy Moth. "Hold, base villain, and surrender to the might of the Goddess of Thunder."

"Avengers!' Bucky snapped. "There are other people here, you know."

Gypsy Moth's attention went to each of the newcomers in turn. He waited patiently until they finished sniping at one another. Once they calmed down, he postured before them. "Fools! You have entered the lair, no, cocoon of the Gypsy Moth, who single-handedly nearly defeated all of the Defenders."

"The who?" Bucky asked.

"They're superheroes."

"Never heard of them," Bucky said.

"They're a non-team."

"What is a non-team?" Hulk asked.

"It's where some people on it feel it's a team, but others say it's just a collection of individuals who happen to be in the same place when things happen."

"Fine," Bucky said. "Next question, why did you pick a stupid name like Gypsy Moth?"

"Because I can telekinetically control cloth." He laughed in a half-crazed, half-sinister, fashion.

The Hulk was the first to react. "That's a stupid superpower."

"I knew it!" Bucky shouted, looking like she was ready to turn around and walk out. "As soon as I laid eyes on that stupid outfit I knew this guy was a moron. We should have let Daredevil handle it solo. His rogues gallery is nothing but losers. Some cloth-controlling bug guy would be a perfect addition to it."

Thor nodded. "Tis beneath the Goddess of Thunder to deal with such fools. Hulk, grab yon miscreant and let us be on our way."

The Hulk scratched his head. "Hulk thought Stupid Bug Man was Gypsy Moth, not Miss Creant. Stupid Bug Man is not even a girl."

"I'll do it," Bucky said, moving toward the villain.

Gypsy Moth didn't move. He simply stood there casually, saying, "I think not."

Thor, Hulk, and Bucky suddenly found their clothing tear free from their bodies and fly to the far side of the room, as though the material had the substance of the wind.

The Hulk noticed the draft and looked down. "What happen to Hulk's pants?" As he looked around for them, he saw Thor's naked body, displaying divine attributes that were proportional to her six and a half foot frame. Blood shot out of his nose, spraying upward like a fountain, while his eyes rolled into the back of his head. He fell limply to the ground, cracking the floor with his massive weight.

Thor also noticed the draft. After one stunned moment, she screeched at the top of her lungs, covering her intimate parts as she ran for her life toward the nearest bathroom. She didn't bother opening it; she ran straight through, knocking the door off its hinges as she screamed the entire way.

Gypsy Moth laughed so hard he nearly doubled over. "Wait until I tell everyone how I single-handedly defeated the Avengers. I'll finally get the respect I deserve. I…." His boast stopped abruptly as a leap kick met him squarely in the jaw, sending him to the ground. As consciousness left him, he gurgled out, "Have… you… no… shame?" and passed out.

The now nude (save for her shield) Bucky, stared down at him in satisfaction. "That takes care of that."

A woman's voice came from the doorway, declaring in an announcer's voice, "There you have it, folks. We finally have the answer to the question on everyone's minds: is Bucky a natural redhead?"

Bucky turned to see several news cameras pointed at her, or more specifically, pointed at everything below the neck. She squeaked, "Don't photograph me naked, you creeps!" She crouched behind her shield just as she would if a foe was firing beams of energy at her.

Ignoring her protests, the news crew moved closer, the smell of ratings intoxicating them like sake to an alcoholic. Before they took two steps, there was a loud crash of thunder and a flash of light from the direction of the restroom. After a handful of seconds, a second peal and flash followed. A triumphant, "Yes, they have returned!" came from the bathroom, followed a second later by Thor. 

There was a look of blood in her eyes as she shouted, "Gypsy Moth, prepare to meet thy doom!" She looked down to see his unconscious form and the glare departed. "Oh, I see thou hast already met it."

"Do something about these creeps, would you?" Bucky shouted from her position behind her shield.

Thor turned her attention to her comrade and the predicament she was in. Scowling, she turned to the reporters. "Only the lowest of jackals would dare to take advantage of one who has saved them from a terrible menace," Thor paused and looked at Gypsy Moth again. "From a terrible irritant. Away, gnats."

Grabbing her hammer by the thong, she spun it around like a giant fan, instantly creating a wind of near tornado intensity. It blew the cameramen and reporter away and out into the street like tumbleweeds across an empty desert.

Satisfied at her handiwork, Thor turned to Bucky, who remained crouched behind her shield as though more cameramen might come after her. The goddess undid her red cape and handed it to the girl, who accepted the offering.

Bucky wrapped herself in the cape. While she was a tall, buxom girl, Thor made her look small, and the cape was easily able to cover her entire body. "Thanks for the save. How did you get your clothes back?"

Thor hefted her hammer. "A magical enchantment upon Mjolnir."

Bucky fingered the cape. "Too bad I don't have magically appearing clothing."

Thor scowled. "In truth, thy garments seem to magically disappear at times."

Bucky's teeth gnashed together. "That ain't my fault. Things just seem to happen." She gained a sinister gleam in her eyes. "Besides, you don't see me scurrying for cover just because I flashed some tit."

"That is because thou art a brazen harlot!"

"I just ain't ashamed of my body." Bucky struck a seductive pose, despite being draped in a cape.

It was Thor's turn to gain a sinister gleam. "Very well, I shall summon yon reporters back."

The posing stopped. "Never mind! Let's grab the Nudinator and ole Greenskin and…" Bucky stopped as she stared at the Hulk. "Well, well, well, it looks like the blood didn't rush only to his nose."

"What dost thou mean?" Thor looked in the same direction and was confronted with unquestionable evidence that everything about the Hulk was proportional and that he was decidedly heterosexual.

Thor's jaw dropped, then she turned red-faced and shouted, "Pervert!" She ran across the room drawing back her foot as she arrived at the Hulk's side. A thunderous kick punted him clean through another wall and off into the distance.

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

Awareness returned to the Hulk when he found himself wholly submerged in water. Or more appropriately, awareness returned to the Incredible Bwee. Annoyed rather than incapacitated at the lack of oxygen, Bwee swam upward. Upon breaking the surface, the two hundred pound 'piglet' (if anything that size could be called such) took a deep breath, then went back down to the bottom of the river he had been punted into. Kicking off from the bottom, Bwee shot through the water like a torpedo, then was reclassified as a missile as he arced above the river and into the air. He landed on the nearest shore, wet, smelling of sewage, and angry.

It took Bwee a moment to remember what had happened. He had followed Shield Girl to a building that held Stupid Bug Man. He had been ready to grab Stupid Bug Man when Bwee's clothing had disappeared. Then he looked up to see Hammer Girl's clothing had disappeared as well.

Visions of nude Nordic perfection caused Bwee's nose to spurt out a healthy amount of blood again. He rolled over onto his side, unconscious.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Gym class was a pain, Ukyou decided. Sports bras were a hassle, and she hated those idiotic ensembles girls had to wear. Guys' gym clothes were more practical, comfortable, and never rode into her crotch. However, by far the worst thing about it was today's class: archery practice. She would have to act as though she couldn't recognize one end of an arrow from the other for fear of being recognized as her alternate identity. Darn that Ranma for giving everything away by using her old nickname. She didn't think he'd remember, or have the nerve to do it if he did. Now she didn't know what to do, other than doing everything possible to prevent anyone from discovering her identity.

At least she had missed the call to action yesterday. Had she ended up like Bucky, her secret would have been lost for certain. She made a mental note to avoid fighting any villains who could control clothing, and Gypsy Moth in particular. She was sure she could come up with some excuse. Maybe she had late homework she had to turn in. It was either that or come up with a plastic outfit.

Grumbling under her breath, Ukyou noted she was alone in the locker room. The girls' locker room, specifically. She had almost entered the guys' room out of force of habit, only catching herself just as she was about to open the door. After entering the correct locker room, she had hung back, waiting for the others to finish dressing before changing herself. It was a routine from the old days when she went to an all boys' school. While guys were usually blissfully unaware of their surroundings, they tended to focus pretty intently when breasts showed up. Ukyou knew it didn't matter anymore, it wasn't as though anyone would be surprised if she showed off the set of equipment under her clothes, but old habits died hard.

She had nearly finished changing when a familiar voice called out, "Hey, Ukyou!"

Ukyou winced as Akane Tendou came limping up to her, gnarled wooden cane in hand. She wondered if the girl was poor and unable to afford a newer one. She would have thought someone would have bought one for her birthday or something.

Akane chose a locker next to Ukyou and began to change. While Ukyou wanted to hurry and leave, she knew it would be considered rude, and she had wronged Akane enough as it was. She slowed down and allowed herself to be cornered by her classmate.

As Akane pulled her blouse over her head, she said, "It seems like you've been avoiding me lately."

Leave it to Akane to get right to the point. Ukyou's laugh was tinged with embarrassment. "Sort of. I'm sorry about shoving you around on my first day here."

Akane grunted in disgust. "Don't tell me you're still hung up on that. I just landed on my bottom. I was perfectly fine. I hate the way everyone treats me like I'm made of glass. I just have a bad leg, it's not like I'm in a wheelchair."

Ukyou remained uneasy. "Still, you must not think too much of me. Lord knows not too many people around here do."

Annoyance became sympathy. "Yeah, you did kind of get off on the wrong foot with everyone. I'll tell you what, why don't we become friends? That should squash a lot of the resentment directed at you for shoving me around."

The open proposal surprised Ukyou. Admittedly, she could really use a friend, but Akane was the next to last person she thought would offer the hand of friendship, Ranma being the absolute last. "Really? Even after what I did to you?"

Sympathy shifted back to annoyance. "Look, the first thing you have to agree to if we're going to be friends is that you don't act like I'm breakable if you shout too loud, got it?"

Ukyou nodded. "Okay, I got it."

Akane seemed relieved. "Good. The next thing I wanted to talk to you about is Ranma. I…"

"Break off your engagement to him before it's too late!" Ukyou interrupted. "You don't know what kind of a monster he is! He'll break your heart and abandon you like yesterday's garbage!" Ukyou grabbed Akane's hand and held it in what could have been interpreted as an intimate gesture.

Akane focused on the statement rather than Ukyou's action. "I am not engaged to Ranma. Who told you something stupid like that?"

"Some girl named Nabiki. She also told me if I get bullied around she was available for protection services at reasonable rates." As though Ukyou needed anyone's protection. Still, a part of her would have been amused at hiring Nabiki and having the girl discover the types of super-villains that wanted to 'bully' Ukyou around.

Akane simmered in fury. "That idiot! How dare she spread around lies like that!"

The vehemence of the rejection startled Ukyou. Akane almost sounded like her when it came to Ranma. "You're not engaged to him?"

"No, and I never will be!"

Oh yes, she was sincere about it. "Why would Nabiki lie about something like that?"

Akane calmed down noticeably. "Well, technically I'm a prospective fiancée. It was an idea my father and Ranma's came up with before we were born. They wanted to unite our two families' martial arts schools by marriage. However, I have no intention of marrying Ranma. Not that there's anything wrong with him. Actually, he's one of the few people that doesn't treat me differently because of my leg. And he is really buff and good-looking. But he's not for me," she quickly added. "I'm looking for someone who's older and more mature. A professional who enjoys helping others and would let me stand by his side to assist him in his good deeds."

Ukyou noticed the distant gaze in Akane's eyes. "Sounds like you have someone already picked out."

"No, I haven't." While her lips said one thing, her face turned bright red in disagreement. "Anyway, either of my older sisters is more appropriate for him. Nabiki practices martial arts like he does, and my oldest sister, Kasumi, is at an age where she needs to marry someone before she becomes an old maid. Either one would be perfectly suitable for him."

"It'd be better if you broke off the engagement altogether," Ukyou insisted.

"Nah, both of them could use men in their lives," Akane said.

At that point both girls had finished dressing. Their conversation continued as they headed out to the archery practice yard. The rest of the class were already present, some of the girls having taken their places at the firing line and examining their bows.

As Ukyou and Akane sat down behind the line of archers, a girl with brown hair plopped down next to them. She said to Ukyou, "Hey, I'm Yuka. I hear you're so good with a bow that everyone calls you Hawkeye."

It was Ukyou's turn to blush. "No, no. I'm a terrible archer. It's my worst sport. It's just a coincidence that my childhood nickname was the same as a superhero's."

Yuka clapped her hands together in hope. "Then maybe I won't be the worst shot in class anymore."

Akane said, "I don't know. You are pretty lousy. Ukyou would have to be really bad to be worse than you."

"I never said I was that bad," Yuka defended.

"You nearly hit someone standing behind you."

Yuka sighed in surrender. "I wish I was half as good as Hawkeye. I bet he's the best archer in the world."

A loud clapping caught the girls' attention. They turned their attention to the cause of the commotion. Everyone was applauding a blonde girl who had just hit the bull's eye three consecutive times. The arrows were bunched together so closely there appeared to be no space between the arrowheads.

Ukyou looked at the girl, who had decidedly Western features. "That's the foreign exchange student, isn't it? The American?"

"Jessie Gurtland," Yuka confirmed. "Everyone says she's a prodigy at archery. She'd be a shoo-in for the Olympics, except she's said it's a waste of time. I bet she could give even Hawkeye a run for the money."

Ukyou scoffed. "Hawkeye's the best in the world."

"Hardly. He's not even in the top three."

The girls looked up to see the speaker. Jessie's hearing was truly remarkable to hear them at that distance. Despite the fact she had addressed them, she wasn't looking at the trio of girls. Instead she drew another arrow and pulled back.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ukyou snapped.

Jessie put a fourth arrow in the mix with the other three. Now it looked like one giant arrow sticking out of the middle of the target. "I can tell you the three best archers in the world right now." She drew another arrow, not even deigning to look at Ukyou. "Number one is Joshua Gartland, my father, who used to perform in a circus by the handle of 'Trick Shot'. He might have retired, but he's still as accurate as ever.

Ukyou picked up a bow and quiver of arrows and walked over to stand next to Jessie. The girl that had previously occupied the spot wisely got out of Ukyou's way before she was bowled over.

"Number two?" Ukyou asked.

Jessie still didn't bother looking at her. "Number two is a protégé of my father's named Clint Barton. Actually, he used to go by the name of Hawkeye when he took over my father's spot in the circus, but when he heard there was a superhero by that name, he switched it to Deadshot, which I think is much better."

A fifth arrow left the bow, impacting right next to the others. Jessie grabbed another.

Ukyou chose an arrow, feeling its shaft, then held it to the bow and pulled it back. "And the best?"

"Why, that would be me." Jessie released her arrow.

Ukyou released hers at the same time. Jessie's shaft was pierced in mid-flight, sliced in half as Ukyou's continued on to hit dead center in the middle of someone else's target.

Ukyou giggled girlishly. "Sorry about that. I was so far off the mark I accidentally hit your arrow. That was inexcusable of me. I'm really impressed by your accuracy. I hope I can be half as good as you someday."

Jessie's upper lip curled in a sneer of anger. It appeared she would say something, but then her attitude changed and she smiled sweetly. "That's all right. Accidents happen. Why don't you try again?"

Satisfied her point had been made (if only she knew about it) Ukyou accepted the offer, drew another arrow and lined up for another shot. Pride wouldn't allow her to 'miss' so badly a second time. She aimed for the very edge of the target. A centimeter higher and it would hit the fence behind the large circles she was supposed to be aiming at. Barely hitting the very object she was supposedly aiming at should solidify her reputation as a poor markswoman. She held her breath and visualized where the arrow would impact. The instant she released the bowstring, she knew the shot was true.

The arrow embedded itself exactly where Ukyou had wanted. However, her mind had barely registered the fact when the shaft was split in two by another arrow. It happened so quickly that the second arrow must have been fired while the first was still in flight.

Jessie giggled just as girlishly as Ukyou had before. "Oops, looks like I missed, too. I guess I'm not the best after all."

It took everything Ukyou had to keep from challenging the girl to a duel on the spot.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Ranma plopped himself down in the bedroom he shared with his father, relieved that another day of school was over. The walk back had been boring since Akane had work at Dr. Tofu's while Nabiki said she had some business to conduct and went off in another direction. It was just as well. He was still a little tired from yesterday's experience. Fight was too strong a word, but it had been exhausting all the same.

The peace didn't last as his father entered the room, closing the door behind him. He stood right in front of Ranma, his posture one of confrontation. "Boy, when I told you to get some exposure on television, that wasn't what I meant."

"Shut up, Old Man! You didn't have to fight some freak whose only ability is to turn everyone into flashers." Ranma shot his father a look that said he'd enjoy bouncing Genma around like a giant basketball.

Genma pressed onward. "Just be glad no one photographed you above chest level, or you'd never be able to show your cursed form anywhere."

"I said knock it off!"

Sensing his son was not in a mood to be trifled with, Genma eased back. Unfortunately for him, Ranma was in the mood for confrontation, and something had been bothering him for a while. He had been trying to find the right segue to broach the subject before, but now he didn't care. "When are we going to see Mom again? Now that I'm a superhero, twice over, I think I've lived up to my end of the bargain of becoming a symbol of pride for this country."

Genma nodded. "After you pick one of the girls as your fiancée. That way we can tell her the good news all at once. So, have you decided on which girl?"

Ranma backed off, not anticipating the shift in topics. "I, ah, haven't gotten that much time to get to know them, with me having to be an Avenger and school and everything. They seem pretty busy, too. So it's not like we've had many opportunities to be together."

"You can always skip school," Genma suggested.

"I don't think being known as 'The Drop-Out Superhero" is conducive to the whole symbol of heroism thing."

Reluctantly, Genma nodded. "True, but you still have to make a choice about the engagement. Maybe you could have the girls draw straws and the winner would end up with you. There's something to be said about Fate, you know."

It was getting bad. His father was rarely this insistent about the engagement thing. Ranma tried figuring a way out, then suddenly realized how he could change topics and settle a problem at the same time. Much more casually he said, "Speaking of engagements, I have something I want to ask you, Pop."

That made Genma smile. "Boy, I'm glad you feel comfortable enough with me to seek out my advice."

"You do?"

"Certainly. It just so happens that I am an expert in how to pleasure women. Why, if it wasn't for condoms, you'd probably have a half dozen brothers and sisters by now. Let me describe some of my basic techniques that will have your partner begging for more."

A kick landed in Genma's face. "I don't need to hear about no sexual techniques!" Ranma removed his foot, since kicking his father's jaw shut wouldn't get him the answers he really wanted. "Anyway, that's not what I wanted to talk about."

Genma rubbed his jaw, staring at his son warily. "What is it, then?"

"Good ole' Hawkeye showed up at my school."

Genma gasped. "You mean he knows your secret identity? How?"

Ranma shook his head furiously. "Not that Hawkeye! The girl one. My childhood friend, Ukyou Kuonji. Remember her?"

Genma suddenly broke out in a sweat. He grabbed Ranma by the shoulders and shook him hard. "Listen to me, Boy. One of your numerous foes must have discovered your connection to her and brainwashed her to turn against you. Pay no attention to what she says, especially anything relating to me."

Another kick landed squarely in Genma's face. "I somehow doubt the Mandarin's master plan for my downfall involves making my old friend think she was engaged to me. Now, if he was laying the groundwork for pretending he was my real father, then he'd be onto something since that's exactly the sort of thing you'd do. Now fess up. What did you do to make Hawkeye think we were engaged when we were kids?"

"I engaged the two of you."

"That would explain much."

When Ranma didn't immediately hit him, Genma relaxed. "Of course it does."

"Including the depths of your stupidity!" Ranma opted for a punch this time. "You already planned to engage me to one of the Tendou girls, so what possessed you to engage me to Ukyou, too?" Ranma looked like he wanted to work his father over like a punching bag.

Sensing his son's borderline homicidal desires, and not in the mood for a beating, Genma said, "Let me explain, and don't hit me until I've finished!"

Ranma glared, but nodded. "Go on."

Since it no longer appeared escape was a necessity, Genma regained his composure. "I didn't think she'd actually want to marry you. I figured after a few months she'd get over her childish infatuation and you two would return to being friends."

Ranma drew his fist back. "Then why engage me to her in the first place?"

Before his son could launch the punch, Genma hurried out, "I was hoping she'd become your superhero side-kick."

The first uncurled and his anger disappeared. Ranma stared at his father, dumbfounded. "What?"

Genma dropped into a lecturer's tone. "Many reputable superheroes have sidekicks. It's a tradition. With her skill in archery, she'd have made a great side-kick. I was thinking of calling her, 'The Fuchsia Arrow'."

Ranma winced, but said nothing, still too dumbfounded to respond.

Genma continued. "But at the last minute, I had second thoughts. This isn't the sort of life for everyone, and it would be dangerous. We have to make you a superhero for family honor, but Ukyou wasn't under any such obligation. I'd have felt bad if something happened to her. When I envisioned what might happen, I just couldn't go through with it. Since I couldn't explain why I changed my mind, I just headed out, leaving her behind. And that's the whole story." Genma visibly relaxed.

After several seconds, Ranma said, "I don't believe it."

"That I would have second thoughts about endangering Ukyou?"

"No, that there was a reasonable explanation for leaving her behind. Mind you, you were your typical idiot self in engaging me to her so she'd be my sidekick, but at least you came to your senses."

"Thanks, I think." Genma was happy at not being beaten further, so he wasn't about to complain about a few backhanded compliments.

Ranma laughed a little. "Besides, even if you had taken her along, it wouldn't have worked out."

Now Genma felt insulted. "Why? I think she'd have made a great superhero. Trust me, I have an eye for that sort of thing. She had just the right mix of talent and dedication."

Ranma snorted. "Shows what you know. She gave up archery."

"Her arm was cut off?"

"No! She outgrew it. She said proper girls didn't do that sort of thing. I can sort of believe it. You should see her, Pop. I almost didn't recognize her because she's so girly. Heck, when I was little I used to think she was a guy, until we switched clothes that one time as a joke. And even then you had to explain to me she hadn't been mutilated or something."

Genma held his hand to his chin in thought while Ranma shook his head in disbelief at the memory. "Outgrew it, you say?"

Ranma picked up on his father's interest. "What are you up to, Old Man?"

"Nothing." More firmly he said, "Since I'm responsible for this situation, I'll explain it to her personally. You don't happen to know where she lives?"

Ranma shot Genma a dubious look, but answered, "She runs an okonomiyaki shop after school. A lot of my classmates go to it and say the food's great. I haven't dropped by since she's angry with me and I don't feel like making things worse. You're really going over to explain things?"

"Of course."

"What are you going to tell her?"

"I'll take full responsibility. I'll claim I had second thoughts due to the previous agreement with the Tendous. I'll make sure she knows you had nothing to do with it."

Ranma snapped his fingers. "Now I get it!"

"Get wha--" Genma's question died on his lips as Ranma punched him in the face, knocking him down to the floor. Holding his jaw, he stared angrily at his son. "What was that for?"

Ranma began shifting the weight on his feet back and forth, ready for a fight. "There's no way you'd be taking responsibility for this willingly. Obviously you're under someone's mind control. Don't worry, I'll free you by beating you up until the pain drives the controlling presence from your body."

Genma began to back away. "I'm not under anyone's mind control."

"That's what everyone under mind control says. Now hold still. I can inflict lots more pain on you if you just stand there and take it." Ranma moved in for the kill.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Stupid boy, thinking I'm under someone's mental domination," Genma grumbled to himself as he saw a sign announcing the name of a new restaurant called 'Ukyou's'. He moved the curtain aside and entered. The place was half full of customers. A cute girl in her late teens was dressed as a waitress while a girl in a traditional okonomiyaki seller's outfit stood behind the grill, whipping up food like a professional. Genma recognized the style belonging to the Kuonji clan, and he could still see traces of the old tomboy Ukyou had been growing up.

Catching sight of the new arrival out of the corner of her eye, Ukyou looked up and said, "Welcome…" then stopped in recognition. "Oh, it's you."

Genma walked up to the grill. "Can we talk in private?"

A battle of emotions flared across Ukyou's face. Just when it seemed she might send Genma on his way, she acquiesced. She asked the waitress to keep an eye on things while she took Genma in the back.

She led Genma up to her room and closed the door behind her. "What are you doing here, fat man? If it's an apology, save your breath. I'm not accepting them."

Instead of answering, Genma's hand lashed out, snaring Ukyou's wrists and clamping them shut in his meaty grasp.

"What are you doing?" Ukyou shouted in shock, struggling in his grasp. But the older man proved superior in strength, holding her firmly in place.

"I knew it!" Genma shouted triumphantly. "You were lying about giving up archery."

Ukyou froze in his grasp. "I… I don't know what you mean."

"Come off it, girl. You can't hide the calluses." He twisted her wrists so the inside of her hands were visible to her. There were indeed calluses right where Genma claimed. "The only way you could get those there is if you practice archery constantly. Probably every day."

Ukyou snatched her hands out of his grasp. She half-turned away and kept them behind her, out of his reach. "So what if I do?"

Genma grinned in smug satisfaction. "The boy said you claimed you gave up the bow, but I knew better. You have the spirit of a fighter in you. Archery is a part of you the way martial arts are to me and Ranma. Now the only question is why you would hide something like that."

Ukyou looked like she wanted to run, but the only way out was the door, and Genma was between her and it. "I just didn't want to admit to an unfeminine hobby like that. I'm not a tomboy anymore."

"Right, and it's a mere coincidence that when you showed up a talented superhero archer appeared at the same time. One with the same nickname you used to have, Hawkeye."

Ukyou regained some confidence. "You're forgetting something. Hawkeye's a guy, while I am obviously a girl."

"Nothing a padded costume couldn't take care of, and I'll prove it." Before Ukyou could react, Genma lunged for her, ripping open the front of her outfit. "And there's the proof!"

The only thing underneath the outfit was a pair of breasts restrained by a bra.

"Oops." Genma's face turned crimson.

"Pervert!" Ukyou kicked him in the stomach, driving him back. With some space between them, she brought her foot down on a floorboard, driving it upward to reveal a secret compartment underneath. In one fluid motion she brought out a collapsible bow and an arrow. The bow sprang out, and she pulled back on an arrow, pointing it right at Genma's face.

"Looks like an explosive arrow to me," he said calmly.

Ukyou looked at the weapon in her hand and realized her mistake. The energy drained out of her as her arms slumped and the weapon hung idly in her hands. "Damn it. And I worked so hard to keep anyone from figuring it out."

Genma straightened up his roughened gi. "Don't worry about it. I won't tell anyone about your alter ego." Genma said it casually, as though commenting on the weather.

Ukyou could only stare at him. "Why would you do that after you went to such lengths to figure it out?"

As he had with his son, Genma took on a lecturer's tone. "Because I approve of your work. The world needs people like you, risking your life to stop menaces that the normal authorities can't. Telling everyone who you are would make your life hell. And your taking up the cause also proves my instincts were right on the ball. That idiot boy owes me an apology."

Ukyou didn't understand the latter part of the statement and didn't care. She was at a complete loss. For years she had hated the man, convinced he and his son were demons incarnate. Worse, he had seen through her secret in a matter of moments. And just when it seemed he would ruin her life for the second time, he assured her that he would help protect her secret. That he approved of her actions. She was uncertain of how to react. Numb, she barely mumbled out, "Thanks."

Genma appeared as though he was about to leave, then squared his shoulders to her again. "I almost forgot. You really shouldn't hold anything against Ranma. He never even knew about the engagement. It was all my idea, as well as leaving you behind."

If the old man hadn't turned her world upside down before, now it was almost completely destroyed. Ranma hadn't known? It didn't seem possible. Then again, it would explain his complete lack of concern about the past and his bewilderment at her attitude toward him. Ignorance was the only rational explanation. But that only applied to Ranma, not the man before her. Long repressed emotions surged to the forefront. In a hurt voice, she asked, "Why did you do that to me? I was just a little kid."

A rare look of sympathy appeared on Genma. "The boy and I were going somewhere dangerous, and I made an error in judgment thinking I could take you along."

"I could have handled it," Ukyou said, tears filling her eyes as she learned the true reason behind her abandonment.

Genma shook his head. "Ranma was also promised to one of the Tendou girls, and I made that one long before I met you."

"I could make a much better bride for Ranchan than any of them! Not that I want to marry him. There's some other guy I have my eye on," she added quickly as visions of the hunky and noble Captain Japan danced through her mind.

Seeing her lost in thought, Genma nodded. "Good, good. It all worked out all right in the end, as usual. It's nice to know I haven't lost my touch in making things turn out all right, not that anyone ever acknowledges it." Genma grumbled the latter part of the statement as he turned to go.

Ukyou called out, "Wait a second. I have just one more thing to do and then we'll be even."

"What is it?" Genma huffed.

Ukyou didn't answer immediately. Instead she reached into the secret compartment and pulled out an ordinary arrow. She then went to her desk, pulled out a magic marker, and began to write on the length of the shaft. After making a few scribbles, she put the cap on the marker back on and tossed it aside. "I had the wrong name on this," Ukyou explained as she drew it back in the bow.

Genma could just make out the word 'Ranma' having been crossed out and replaced by 'Genma' on the side. Fearing the worst, he drew back. "Now hold on, girl, I thought we had a deal."

Ukyou smiled menacingly. "I said I forgave Ranchan for dumping me. I didn't say I forgave you. Now hold still, and it'll be over quickly."

Genma screamed as he headed for the door.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Hey, Pop. Why are you holding your butt like that?"

"Shut up, Boy!" Genma snapped, rubbing his posterior. "I made the supreme sacrifice for you today, so show some gratitude."

For a moment Ranma was about to ask what his father meant, then shut his mouth. Some things were best left unknown. Problems with his father's posterior were near the top of the list. "How are thing with Ukyou?"

"She forgives you," Genma grunted.

Sensing the topic would best be left alone, since Ranma had a bad feeling it related to the problems with his father's bottom, he switched back to another one. "I really want to see Mom. Why don't we visit her tomorrow?"

"You mean you've decided on a girl?"

Ranma had already thought this argument through, and thought he had a way out. "Seeing Mom shouldn't have anything to do with marrying one of the girls. One promise doesn't have anything to do with the other, and it would be wrong to make her miserable by staying away from her any longer."

Genma was about to retort when he stopped and thought about the matter. It appeared the boy was dragging his feet regarding the engagement. With their obligation fulfilled, it would be safe to return Nodoka. Moreover, she had always been eager about the idea of Ranma marrying young and having grandchildren. She would no doubt push the boy into selecting one of the girls as well. Between him and his wife, they would be sure to force Ranma to choose one of them before the month was out. "A good idea, Boy. We'll go tomorrow."

The sudden change in attitude made Ranma suspicious, even if it was what he had wanted. "Really? No catch?"

"No catch." None on his part, anyway. Ranma might find himself firmly caught once his mother started encouraging him to become engaged, though. But that had nothing to do with Genma. It was Ranma who insisted on seeing her. Just because she didn't respond in the exact way Ranma wanted to was the boy's own fault, not Genma's. His conscience was clear, and his ass sore.

Ranma was relieved at finally securing his father's permission. Between that and his father solving the Ukyou problem for him (admittedly Genma had been responsible for it in the first place, but he caused problems all the time so it wasn't unusual), Ranma felt the urge to do something with him. Since Genma didn't look up to sparring, Ranma thought of something else. "Why don't we watch television? You can pick the show."

"As long as it doesn't involve sitting, fine."

The pair headed to the living room, only to see Akane and Kasumi were already there, watching the television.

"What's on?" Ranma asked.

"Talk show," Akane said.

"Change the channel. Talk shows are always boring," Ranma said.

Akane said, "They're about to interview some woman who's forming a group regarding superheroes."

"Oh?" That caught the men's interest. Ranma sat down on the end of the table, making certain he was equal distance away from both girls so no one could accuse him of preferring one over the other. Genma remained where he was, staring mournfully at the floor and rubbing his bottom. It looked like there was going to be a lot of standing in his immediate future.

All eyes were fixed on the television as the advertisement ended and they introduced the show's host. Sitting across from him at an angle, so the television cameras could show her entire face, was an older woman, attractive despite being in her mid-thirties. She wore a formal, if plain, white kimono, and had her reddish-colored hair tied into a bun.

Akane and Kasumi were so caught up in the show they failed to notice the Saotomes' reaction.

The interviewer spoke. "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I'm your host, Ken Ootoki. It is my pleasure to introduce to you our special guest this evening, Nodoka Saotome." There was a brief moment of polite, obligatory applause. Once it died off, Ken continued, addressing Nodoka. "Now it's my understanding, Mrs. Saotome, that you've founded a group that's against superheroes."

"Not at all, Ken," Nodoka corrected. "We're against the immoral and indecent scoundrels that pose as superheroes. While they contend that they are trying to help society, what they are really doing is undermining the very fabric our culture rests upon with their vulgar and lewd acts. Whatever small benefits their defeat of super-villains might bring are vastly offset by their behavior, which far too many people find acceptable."

The interviewer nodded his head in agreement, despite what should have been his impartial status. "Can you give us an example of such so-called superheroes?"

"Easily." Now Nodoka seemed to be far more eager and emotional as she spoke. "At the forefront is this Bucky bimbo everyone talks about. Since her first appearance fighting that mysterious flying vehicle in downtown Tokyo, she's been constantly stripping, flaunting her body before everyone. Why, just yesterday she pranced about naked before this very station's news program." She stared in disapproval at the host, as though he were responsible. "Now I ask you, is this the sort of behavior we want our children to emulate?"

"Polls show she is very popular, though," Ken pointed out.

"Popular, or merely notable? And what is it that makes her popular? Do people cite the lives she's saved, or how many times she jiggles when she throws a punch?"

A murmur of agreement began to emanate from the studio audience.

Nodoka continued. "I rest my case. Like far too many women, she's only known for her breast size, not her accomplishments, and her behavior only enables others to foster such sexist attitudes. She's little more than a garishly-dressed whore, and everyone knows who her pimp is."

"Captain Japan?" the interviewer asked.

Nodoka's anger bubbled through. "Of course! It's obvious he's the one in charge of their dubious relationship. They even have matching shields and costumes, yet she's referred to as his side-kick, a clear indicator of who is in charge. And yet he does nothing to stop her behavior. Why, I wouldn't be surprised if he's designed tear-away costumes for her. Lord knows they come flying off every time she exerts herself. And I have it on very reliable word that they sleep together. That such shameless people adorn themselves in our nation's flag makes me ill."

There was now loud cheering among the audience, and very, very few boos.

The interviewer said, "And yet, in spite of your criticisms, you claim you're not against superheroes?"

Nodoka's demeanor went from anger to tenderness. "On the contrary, I am very much in favor of them. I approve of them so much that my husband is training my son to become one. Their training is so arduous that they've been journeying for over a decade. I haven't seen them in over ten years." She dabbed at her eyes.

The audience "Aww"d in sympathy.

"Thank you," Nodoka said.

"I had no idea you sacrificed so much," Ken added.

Nodoka finished drying her eyes. "Yes, but it will all be worth it once my son completes his training and returns. He will be a man among men. A hero among heroes. A symbol of our country's greatness and what it means to be Japanese. In essence, the exact opposite of what Bucky and Captain Japan represent. This obligation to our country is so great that before they set out, they agreed that should they fail to live up to that promise they will be disowned from our family forever and shall be nameless from that day forward."

There was a collective gasp from the crowd.

"That seems a bit harsh," the interviewer said.

"It is a matter of family honor," Nodoka assured him. "And because it is such a hard path they have taken, how could I do any less? That is why I have formed the Citizens Against Immoral Superheroes. Already our membership is in the hundreds, and our numbers grow each day. Soon these false idols shall be torn down, and true heroes, like my son, will become the paragons of virtue our people should live by."

There was a deafening cheer from the crowd. The camera panned over the audience, showing it stood almost to a person as everyone applauded.

Ranma and Genma turned as pale as the older man's gi. Ranma turned to his father. "Remember what I was saying earlier about visiting you know who? I changed my mind. We should put it off for a good long while."

Genma could only nod his head in agreement.

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

End fic 


	20. Act II Chap7: Hercules

Prologue

Xellos grinned as he finished setting up the boxlike device in the center of the clearing. Satisfied, he walked to a nearby stump, and with a wave of the hand turned it into a comfortable wooden chair.

Lina watched Xellos closely, wondering what he was up to. She still couldn't fathom the purpose of the box with the glass front, one that couldn't be peered into. After much internal debate, she decided to go with the direct approach. Sometimes Xellos was straightforward, when it suited his purpose. "What is that thing?"

"A magic box," Xellos explained.

"What does it do?" Amelia asked.

"It entertains by showing images of far off places." Pulling out a small rectangle with a number of buttons on it, Xellos pointed it at the magic box and pushed a button. Suddenly the glass showed a snowy background and made an annoying static noise.

"I don't feel entertained," Zelgadis said dryly.

"It's poor reception. Gourry, pull out your Sword of Light."

Gourry did so.

"Now put your hand on the television set."

"The what?" Gourry asked.

"The magic box."

Again Gourry did so. Instantly an image started to form and voices could be heard through the fuzzy noise.

"Hold the sword high above your head," Xellos instructed. "More to the right. More to the left. More to the left. Just a little more. There!" Finally the image came in perfectly. "Stay right there."

Gourry couldn't help noticing everyone had sat down to watch the magic box, all except him. He stood on one foot, leaning so far over he was ready to topple. To compound the matter, his arm started to ache since the Sword of Light was pointed in a different direction than his body.

"How long do I have to do this?" Gourry asked.

"Until the show's over."

Gourry sighed.

Avenging Act II, Chapter 7 Hercules: Prince of Power (Not a Sam Raimi Production)

Any and all C+C appreciated. You can contact me at: the previous chapters and my other works are stored at:

Larry F's new address at:  
http/ newer works at Mediaminer disclaimer: I don't own any of the Marvel characters or other characters from the numerous animes which are within.

Revised: 12/12/05

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The smell of decades old wood, worn from bare feet moving across it thousands of times, permeated the air of the dojo. Light filtered through a handful of windows set high in the walls, bathing the room in sunlight from dusk until dawn. Racks of martial weapons, some practice, some not, lined the walls. The center of the dojo was empty for one purpose: combat. Currently two fighters faced off against one another in aggressive stances, each eager to fight. A palpable tension filled the air, lending seriousness to the duel that was about to take place.

Off to the side, Ranma stood next to his father, watching intently as Soun and Nabiki kept their eyes riveted to one another. The older man was dressed in his standard brown gi while Nabiki's was night black, embroidered with sinewy golden dragons on the front.

"Are you ready?" Genma asked, hand raised high above his head.

The pair continued staring silently at one another, as though to blink was to admit defeat.

"Begin!" The hand dropped.

The two charged one another. Soun lashed out first with a hard right intended for his middle child's chest. Nabiki shifted to the side, the fist close enough to brush against the material of her uniform. Lightning quick, she lashed out with a punch to Soun's jaw while he was off balance.

Soun took the blow and tried spinning around with a kick that would have come close to taking Nabiki's head off if it had connected. Instead she ducked under the kick, lashing out with a foot of her own at her father's leg, the one supporting him. It struck squarely behind the knee, causing him to collapse on his back. She followed with an axe kick, raised high above her head, before bringing it crashing down on his stomach. Soun wuffed as all the air was driven out of his lungs.

Nabiki fell on her bottom, next to her father's arm. "Time to practice joint locks." She grabbed his arm with her hands and scooted her body toward him on the floor, locking her legs around his chest and grabbing fully onto the limb. She twisted it in three different directions, none of them in the way they were meant to bend.

Soun slapped his free hand madly on the floor, babbling, "I yield!"

Nabiki continued bending Soun's arm in ways that would make a contortionist envious. "Oh come on, Daddy, I need the practice, and it's not like I've broken anything… yet."

"Get off him." Ranma moved toward the pair.

Just before he could lay a hand on her, Nabiki finally released the hold and rolled to her feet. "Don't get so worked up. Besides, he's the one that was asking for it. I never wanted to learn martial arts. He made me do it for the so-called 'family honor.' So if he ends up with a few bruises… let's just call it reaping the whirlwind."

Ranma scowled in disapproval as Soun rose unsteadily to his feet, Genma lending a helping hand. The Tendou patriarch bowed before Nabiki. "It has become evident I have taught you all I can."

Nabiki's attitude suddenly brightened. "You mean I can quit these stupid training matches?"

"It means you'll be training with Ranma from now on." Soun breathed a deep sigh of relief and walked to the sideline, still trying to catch his breath.

Nabiki's ire returned, doubled. She snorted disdainfully at Ranma. "Forget it. I don't fight, or spar, for no reason."

"Oh, afraid you'll lose?" Ranma asked haughtily.

"No, I'd win. I have nothing to prove, and there's no profit in it for me."

Unflustered, Ranma smirked at her. "I see. You're one of those people who cover up their insecurities with bravado."

Nabiki suddenly mirrored Ranma's attitude, right down to his posture. "Like you can bruise my ego with your transparent ploys." She was about to say more when she snapped her mouth shut with an audible click. Her eyes traveled over Ranma's form, and a smile returned to her lips. "Okay, I'll fight you under one condition. If I win, I'm no longer a contender for the engagement."

Soun was quick to add, "And if you lose, you agree to marry him."

"No way." Nabiki crossed her arms under her bosom and half-turned away.

Ranma made a choking sound and looked like he wanted to bolt. Of course he'd defeat Nabiki. It was a foregone conclusion, but no way was he marrying her or anyone else. He had to come up with some reason to change the stakes before the fathers blackmailed him into the fight, and he ended up an unwilling husband. "We, ah, can't do that because it, ah, wouldn't be fair to Akane or Kasumi."

Soun's eyes widened, then narrowed in consideration.

"A date, then," Genma suggested.

Soun rubbed his mustache thoughtfully, then nodded to his friend's recommendation.

Nabiki weighed the potential losses versus gains and said, "Fine."

"I agree too," Ranma said. He could live with a date. He had even gone out with the other girls already. At the same time, actually. It had made for an interesting time, and a good one since neither girl could put the moves on him without offending the other.

Nabiki brought up her fists, setting her legs as though she might attack at that moment. "Get ready to make it a two girl fiancée race, Ranma."

Ranma tensed up slightly. "The only chance you have of winning is if I'd gone ten rounds with the Hulk beforehand."

There was no more banter exchanged as Nabiki inhaled deeply. She intended to end things quickly using whatever means necessary. Once she was out of the running she could help marry off Ranma to either of her sisters, have him carry on the Tendou school, then drop this whole martial arts crap. It was obvious he was overconfident. Many of her foes took that attitude since she didn't like martial arts. But not liking something didn't mean one wasn't good at it. On the contrary, she was very, very good, as Ranma was about to discover to his eternal regret.

Nabiki mentally pictured her first two attacks and calculated all of Ranma's potential defenses against them. She settled on one that she was certain would be effective against the big lug and prepared to take the battle to him. An early critical blow could end things quickly.

Just then a small red blur shattered a window and shot into the room, attaching itself to Nabiki's breasts. She froze in place, statue still. She looked down in horror at the new growth snuggling against her bosom.

A mostly bald cranium with a ring of white hair was there. The head turned upward to reveal a repulsive visage so wrinkled it looked like someone had tried to dehydrate a prune. It grinned broadly, flashing perfect white teeth, even if the smile itself could curdle milk.

"Sweeto!" the elderly ball of perverted energy declared.

The voice shocked Nabiki into action. She gave a shrill cry of "Get off of me!" and slammed her fist into the elderly man's face.

The force of the blow knocked him from his perch, but rather than resulting in injury, he simply bounced upon hitting the floor. His upward arc took him between Nabiki's legs and behind her. His tiny hands firmly attached themselves to her derriere, where he began rubbing against her bottom as he had her top.

Nabiki screeched in terror. She began spinning around, trying to figure out how to dislodge the ugly man, when the matter was taken care of courtesy of a roundhouse punch from Ranma. It hit the pervert solidly, driving him to the floor. This time the old man lay there, groaning in pain.

Genma shouted, "Don't let up, boy!"

"Yes, kill it before it has a chance to recover!" Soun seconded.

Momentarily taken aback by the men's bloodthirstiness, Ranma hesitated, allowing the little man to return to his feet unharmed, despite the force behind Ranma's punch. Idly the pervert pulled out a pipe, which began smoking despite not being lit.

Surprised by the little creature's resilience, Ranma went to attack him again. The old man caught Ranma's fist in the crook of his pipe and casually used it to toss his attacker into a far wall. The impact shattered boards and shook the walls.

"It'll take more than that little tap to finish off Happosai, you young punk," Happosai boasted. He then turned to the pair of cheerleaders. "And you two. How dare you show such disrespect to your master."

Both men prostrated themselves before Happosai. Genma said, "We're sorry, Master."

"The only thing you're sorry about is not using more dynamite," Happosai replied.

By then Nabiki had fully recovered and was angry, angrier than she had been in years. "No one touches me like that and lives." She lunged for Happosai, aiming a chop at his skull, one that could shatter bricks into pebbles.

Happosai leaped out of the way, using Nabiki's head to vault up into the air. He dropped straight down as Nabiki passed under him. As he landed on the floor, he caught the waistband of her pants and pulled them down, revealing a black thong underneath.

"Nice taste in panties." Happosai leered.

Nabiki made a wholly girlish screech and pulled her pants back up.

Before Happosai could say anything further, he narrowly avoided a fist intended to crush his entire body. He looked at his attacker. "Say, kid, you're pretty resilient. Who are you anyway?"

"Ranma Saotome, the guy that's going to kick your ass."

"Only after I do," Nabiki snarled, moving alongside him.

Startled by her willingness to stand at his side, Ranma said, "I thought you didn't fight if there wasn't something in it for you."

"Revenge is always worthwhile," Nabiki said in deadly tones.

Happosai ignored their conversation and turned to Genma. "He's yours?"

Genma nodded in pride. "Yes. In fact, we decided he's the one to carry on the Anything Goes legacy."

"We did?" Soun asked, then a knowing light came on in his eyes. "Oh yes, we did. He's much better than us and there's nothing else we can teach him. He is the one to carry on the art. He should be your student instead of us," he pleaded.

Happosai looked Ranma over, then nodded. "Very well. He shall become my student. I can tell he's got more potential than both of you put together."

The two men shouted, "Free!" and hugged one another, tears rolling down their faces.

"What in the hell is going on?" Ranma bellowed.

Genma detached himself from Soun. "Ranma, meet Happosai, the founder of the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts and your new master."

Ranma recoiled in disgust. "You've got to be kidding me."

"Nope. It's all true," Happosai assured them. "I was your fathers' teacher until they got me drunk, tied explosives to me, and sealed me in a cave." He shot his two former pupils a dirty look, showing the matter was far from over even if they weren't his students. "Since I'm your new master, you need to show me some respect."

"I'll show you my fist!" Ranma shouted.

"And mine!" Nabiki seconded.

Both ran to attack the diminutive man. He taunted, "Catch me if you can!" and darted out of the dojo with the pair hot on his heels.

Soun watched the events develop, tears flowing from his eyes. "Saotome, is it true? Am I seeing what I think I'm seeing?"

"Yes, Tendou. Our children are working together. The future of our families is secure."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Akane used her cane to support her as she made her way through the home. It was a bad day for the leg. Worse, she had overheard her father talking about training with Nabiki and had avoided the dojo. She hated watching anyone performing the art; it was too heartbreaking. And she hated Nabiki for wanting to reject the very thing Akane would have given anything short of her soul for. At least she had two bright things in her life: Dr. Tofu and her alter ego. She could go on like that. In fact, maybe she should go out and change now. There was nothing quite as exhilarating as not being a cripple.

She considered locating Kasumi and letting her know she was going out when a red blur landed right in front of her. An elderly face looked up at her and bowed. "Hey ya, Babe. The name's Happosai. You wouldn't happen to be Soun's youngest, Akane, would you?"

Akane's eyebrow twitched. "Od's blood. A troll on Midgard. And it knows my name."

"Don't even think about touching her, you lech!" Ranma shouted as he ran into the room, trying to kick Happosai, who darted out of the way. Ranma followed hot on the little man's heels as they left the room

Before Akane could think, Nabiki shot past. She paused long enough to say, "Don't worry, Sis, we'll kill that thing before it tries anything else, like breathing." And then exited the room.

Akane considered everything that had just happened. Yes, it was definitely best to visit Avengers Mansion. She'd just leave a note to say she'd be out until evening.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Kasumi toiled away in the kitchen, making lunch, when the red blur shot into the room and firmly attached itself to her bosom. Like her younger sister, she froze for a moment at the sensations coming from a body part that was not used to stimulation of any kind.

Happosai looked up from his perch. "Say hello to your uncle Happi!"

Kasumi screamed at the top of her lungs and slapped him across the face, unleashing a full power 'sting' at the same moment. Happosai went flying into a wall, cracking it before landing hard, a smoldering handprint left on his cheek.

Ranma and Nabiki ran into the room. The instant they spotted Happosai, they stopped in their tracks. Both of them looked at Kasumi in surprise.

Nabiki said, "Whoa, Sis. What did you do to him?"

Kasumi, surprised at being able to unleash her blasts at full size, thought quickly. "I slapped him."

"He's smoking," Ranma pointed out.

"I must have hit a vital spot."

Nabiki picked the unconscious little man up. She shook him once, disappointed to note he was still twitching. "Let's throw him out in the garbage before he comes around."

"Good idea." Ranma grabbed some garbage bags and went in search of some heavy duty chains.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The building referred to as Avengers Mansion had been formerly known as the Kunou ancestral home. The building itself was large, able to comfortably house two dozen family and staff. The grounds surrounding the building took up a number of acres, a sign of old money given its location in Nerima. However, anyone approaching the mansion would be most surprised by the lack of activity in the buildings surrounding the estate.

That silence was due to the missing Kunou patriarch, who had purchased the surrounding land, not for developmental reasons, but because he found his neighbors 'too noisy'. So now every building surrounding the estate lay vacant, making things very quiet indeed.

Along with serving as the headquarters for the Avengers, the mansion held but one servant (Kodachi preferring to live in an apartment near her lab), an individual known simply as 'Sasuke,' the Kunou family's faithful butler/ninja.

As far as Sasuke was concerned he had landed the best job in the world: butler to the Avengers. It was like heaven. For the first time in his life, he felt like he was making a difference. True, he was still doing the same things he did as a normal butler, but it was for super heroes who helped protect the world from bad people. Since he made a difference in their lives, that meant he made a difference in other people's lives. It was like an indirect kiss, which were the only kind he ever experienced.

Besides, he was a ninja, and he was certain once he impressed them with his ninja-like abilities, they'd put him on the team and then he'd be able to land the babes. It was only a matter of time before they acknowledged his talents, then he could choose a name. 'The Ninja' sounded pretty good to him.

Currently only the Hulk and Thor were in residence. He had already won over the Hulk with his sneakiness, even if the green goliath insisted on referring to him as 'Small Mouse Man'. One day he would earn the title of 'Small Sneaky Man.' Someday.

Sasuke was still in the midst of pondering his superhero name when his communicator beeped (and it was an official Avengers communicator, too) His communicator was tied directly into the house's central computer, a device designed by Kodachi. The whole house could be controlled via a computer that could see to its denizens' needs (which was how Sasuke was able to maintain the sizeable mansion on his own). Nothing but state of the art for the Avengers. It alerted Sasuke to the exterior defenses having been activated. That meant an intruder of some kind. Luckily, the numerous protective devices hidden throughout the grounds were non-lethal in nature. Already they had neutralized a number of prospective thieves and the occasional low-powered super villain: the Grinder, Mister Fish, and Kangaroo had been laid low on separate occasions by the defenses. Personally, Sasuke felt they didn't need the defenses and he could have defeated them all on his own to prove his worth, but his mistress wouldn't hear of it. Obviously she valued his butler skills highly to want him to stay out of danger. But the beckoning call of heroism couldn't be denied. It was in his blood.

In any event he had to see who had tripped the defenses and alert the proper authorities to round them up.

Sasuke opened the door to find himself confronted with a very large male gaijin. He was huge, taller than anyone other than the Hulk, and his musculature was incredible, more so even than Captain Japan. His costume consisted of little more than a short skirt with a wide belt, boots, and a leather strap that fit over one shoulder and served as additional support for his skirt. He had a beard and a friendly smile.

More disturbing was the path of destruction that lined the walkway to the door, and that the man showed no sign of being affected by the defenses in any way. No, that wasn't exactly true. There was a torn mechanical arm wrapped around his ankle. It was composed of titanium and could confine an elephant.

For a brief moment, Sasuke envisioned defeating this intruder to prove his worth to the Avengers. Then he decided being a manservant was a perfectly reputable job. They also serve who only stand and wait, after all. Words to live by, which were infinitely better than words to die by.

The stranger said in archaic Japanese, "Greetings, Manservant. Is this the domicile that Thor doth reside in?"

"Yes, it is," Sasuke said meekly.

The man looked the mansion over and muttered. "Truly mine friend is doing what the mortals refer to as slumming." More loudly he said, "I am the Thunderer's comrade of old, Hercules. Dismiss your awe and announce my presence.

"You can come inside," Sasuke offered.

Hercules shook his head. "Nay, I would prefer to remain without and play with more of these entertaining devises that line thy yard."

"I see." Sasuke closed the door and had the computer locate Thor. Hopefully this being was a friend of the Goddess of Thunder, because he didn't like the idea of being near a villain who thought the house's protective devices were a form of entertainment.

The butler found Thor in the main meeting chamber of the Avengers, tapping an impatient finger as she watched the trouble monitor. Employing his ninja skills, Sasuke was about to sneak up on Thor when the goddess in question asked, "What dost thou want?" without turning her head.

Sasuke shrugged off the failure. She was a goddess, and he but a mortal. No contest at all when it came to stealth and detection. "There is an extremely large man outside that claims to be an old comrade of yours. A Mr. Hercules."

Thor shot out of her chair, a bundle of eagerness and delight. "Mine old friend! Where is he?"

Sasuke was relieved the man was who he claimed. He didn't want to know what sort of damage Hercules could inflict on the manor, or the ninja serving in it. "He wanted to wait outside so he could… test our defenses."

Thor was off like a bolt of lightning, which fit well with her status as Goddess of Thunder. It had been centuries since she had last fought alongside her Olympian comrade-in-arms. While they were from differing pantheons, they got along infamously. Well, after they had nearly beaten each other to death thanks to the machinations of Loki and Ares. But they had discovered the plot to set one against the other (technically it was Sif and Hermes who had uncovered it, but Thor would have done it eventually), and soundly thrashed the Gods of Mischief and War. Since then they had undertaken grand adventures, like defeating the Egyptian Death God, Set, recovering the Cask of Ancient Winters, and destroying that self-proclaimed angel, Adam, in the Antarctic. Larger than Fafnir, still the creature had fallen to the gods' combined might. Well, it had taken Odin to prevent catastrophe by impaling the beast with his spear, Gungnir, to keep him from exploding and destroying most of the southern hemisphere, but how was Thor to know 'Angels' were so volatile?

Ah yes, many a fine adventure had been experienced with Hercules. Many unending nights of drinking and debauchery to be had. Like when they raided the hundred woman harem of that mad sheik, Abdul Azzurah. By the time he and Hercules were through with them, they had shown the women what there was to 'immortal might' indeed….

Thor felt heat rush to her cheeks. No, that was not right. She had not done any such thing. She couldn't have. It was a mistake. Yes, that was it. Her memories were scrambled for some reason. She wouldn't do that sort of thing with a woman, or a dozen women to be more accurate, skin gleaming in oils….

Thor shook her head free of her erroneous thoughts and rushed through the house and arrived at the entryway. She took a moment to compose herself, then opened the door to greet her old friend.

And there he was, standing in the doorway, wide smile on his face. Thor returned the smile with one of her own. "Greetings, my fr--"

And then Hercules drew back his fist and struck Thor with all of his godly might.

There was a resounding boom as Thor was belted through the entire length of the mansion, destroying wall after wall with her immortal body, until she went through the last wall. Momentum finally killed, she skipped across the ground several times before skidding to a stop.

Hercules was in motion so quickly that he was halfway through the house by the time she landed. He spotted her on the ground, and rushed up to her. He gave a jovial, "Greetings, my old comrade. It hath been too many centuries since last we met."

Thor had just gotten up on all fours when Hercules kicked her in the stomach, punting her through a fountain lined with plump granite cherubs, and a stone retaining wall. He followed quickly behind her once again.

Thor lay on her stomach, trying to collect herself. As she tried to rise, she unhooked her hammer from her belt, but before she could do anything she was picked up by the back of the neck and pulled a foot off the ground.

"Thou hast lost much weight, Thunderer. You are as light as Artemis now." He drew back and threw Thor like a football, her hammer slipping from her grasp. She flew like a javelin straight into one of the large buildings surrounding the mansion, collapsing most of the five story structure right on top of her.

Rather than chase after his old friend a third time, Hercules waited for Thor to reappear, but no one emerged from the wreckage. The Olympian held his hand to his chin in thought. "Hmm, perhaps I greeted Thor too enthusiastically. The might of Hercules is not to be trifled with, and the Thunderer was always weaker than mineself."

Hercules was about to walk over to see if Thor needed excavating when he became aware of an aura of anger the likes of which had not been felt since Zeus heard the Titans were being considered for parole. He turned around, only to find himself having to look up into a ton of emerald fury.

The Hulk shouted, "You hit Hammer Girl, now Hulk hit you!"

Hercules had just enough time to brace himself for the blow, which is why he only flew to the edge of the grounds of Avengers Mansion instead of Detroit.

For a moment, Hercules couldn't think. It was then he realized the blow had rendered him momentarily senseless. He slowly rose to his feet, looking around to see he was lying in the center of a pit nearly ten meters across.

The emerald goliath leapt into view, landing a handful meters away from Hercules, a distance that could be crossed in a second with his prodigious might. The Olympian examined his new foe in a new light. "By Hades, thou dost hit with the might of Zeus's thunderbolts." Rather than being angered, Hercules appeared excited.

The Hulk shouted, "Hulk not hit like thunderbolt. Hulk hit like Hulk."

And Hercules proved he could hit nearly as hard as a Hulk as he leapt to the attack, landing a punch that sent the Hulk sailing away back into the partially destroyed fountain, making it completely destroyed.

The Hulk rose to his feet, angrier than ever.

Hercules appeared even more delighted. "And thou has the endurance of Typhon. Truly thou art a worthy challenge to the Prince of Power."

The Hulk responded with an articulate, "Hulk smash!"

And then the fight was on.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Matsui Tanaka of the Tokyo Seismic Institute shot out of the chair he had been leaning back in and shot to his feet as the sensor he had been staring at suddenly registered a tremendous shock. As he rubbed his eyes to make certain he wasn't dreaming, a second tremor was recorded. A third and fourth followed as he dialed up his supervisor.

After misdialing it twice, Matsui shouted, "I think a big one is coming! We're getting a number of hits, increasing in intensity." Panic seeped through his statement, despite his attempt at professionalism. His entire family lived in Tokyo.

"Calm down," his supervisor soothed. "Determine the epicenter and we'll work from there."

Matsui went over to the proper computer and used a program to determine the location. "It's… Oh, it's Avengers Mansion."

"See? There's nothing to worry about," the supervisor said in a tone identical to a parent assuring a child there was no boogeyman under his bed.

Matsui hung up the phone, suitably humiliated. It was all the fault of those damned superheroes. As far as he was concerned, anyone that pretended they were a natural disaster should be treated as one. Someone should do something about them.

He had dark thoughts regarding them for the rest of his shift.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Yusaku Hino (aka The Crusher), stood outside Avengers Mansion, eager to show the world his anger by crushing all of the overrated superheroic scum (hence his super villain name. Well, that and the fact he possessed superhuman strength due to his being a mutant), and he was starting with the Avengers.

Like many mutants, his powers had been triggered through adolescence and a traumatic incident. In his case it was learning the love of his life, Hikaru Hiyama, was in a lesbian relationship with Madoka Ayakawa. The shock had proven too much for poor Yusaku. From that day onward, he became a walking testament to self-pity, excessively melodramatic misery, and a propensity to whine about how no one could understand his pain.

Basically, he became a full-fledged teenager. Except for his ability to bench press fifteen tons.

Yusaku stood on the periphery of the estate grounds and shouted, "Come out, Avengers, and prepared to be crushed by… The Crusher!" He flexed his arms to show off his impressive physique.

In answer a huge boulder came hurtling through the air. Yusaku had just enough time to register it before it landed on him. Unfortunately for him, the boulder weighed sixteen tons. It broke all of his limbs and 23 out of 24 ribs. When Yusaku was dug out by emergency crews later in the day, the headlines would read 'Crusher Crushed by the Avengers'.

Xxxxxxxxxx

Akane Tendou grimaced at the scene of destruction wrought by the Hulk-Hercules fight. Nearly half the buildings surrounding the mansion had been leveled, and the grounds had been forever altered. Only the mansion had escaped damage, at least more damage than what Akane had inflicted when her old comrade had used her as a human missile. Despite the signs of intense battle, the pair attacked one another just as viciously as at the start of the fight, even if both sported a number of bruises. It appeared they could go all day long. Not that the area could take it.

Akane probably could have stopped the fight earlier, save Mjolnir being knocked from her grasp by Hercules's final blow, the one that had brought half the building down on top of her. By the time she had unburied herself, a minute had elapsed and she had reverted back into her mortal form. Now she was forced to limp across the battle zone, trying hard to keep from becoming collateral damage as she sought her stick. As intent as both men were upon beating each other to death, she doubted if a cruise missile could catch their attention. A high school girl stood even less of a chance of being noticed, at least until it was too late. She had to find her stick. Then the fight would end. Cruise missiles had nothing on Thor.

Luck was with her for the first time all day. The area she had dropped her hammer looked like a demilitarized zone, but her stick lay unharmed between two newly hewn craters. Akane had just grasped its handle when the giant uprooted tree came hurtling through the air straight toward her. Two sets of lives flashed before her eyes as she reflexively brought her arms out in front of her.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

Hercules pounded away at his emerald foe, delighted at the fight. While in the beginning he was stronger of the two, now the tables seemed to have turned as the creature was hitting for far more damage than perhaps even Hercules himself could inflict. Truly it was amazing. Not that brute strength was the difference. While Hercules relied on his strength, his skills in battle were unmatched after centuries of fighting. The emerald one lacked even the basic rudiments of trained combat, simply opting to 'Smash, smash, and more smash' as his technique. Still, between that and his ability to absorb literally godly amounts of punishment, it proved an effective strategy. Hercules would win, of course, but he would have to earn this one. He wouldn't have had it any other way.

Lust of combat clouding his senses, Hercules leveled the Hulk with a divine fist. As the Hulk went down, Hercules brayed to his foe, "This contest is magnificent! Not since I last strove against the Destroyer have I met a being of thy mettle. Let this be a fight to the finish, so that bards may sing of it for the centuries to come."

"This fight is finished!" a feminine voice shouted out behind him.

Before Hercules could react, a hammer thrown with the full fury of the Goddess of Thunder struck him squarely in the back. It was bad enough that the attack caught him unaware, preventing him from bracing for it, but the blow threw him straight into a full strength punch of the enraged Hulk. A fist nearly as large as Hercules's skull met his unprotected face, throwing him through the air and destroying yet another section of trees. When his aerial journey finally came to a stop, he lay on the ground, unmoving.

Seeing his foe beaten, and that Thor was in good health, the Hulk began to calm down. He turned to the goddess. "Hulk did not need help smashing Muscleman."

"The blow was to restore my pride," Thor assured him. "Besides, he did not truly intend me harm. Hercules is merely… exuberant in his greetings. Now it is time to deal with the muscle-bound dolt."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Consciousness returned to Hercules, and on its heels, the memory of what he had been doing. "The fight!" He tried to rise, but found himself unable to move, his arms and legs bound to a chair he was seated in. He found himself in what appeared to be a meeting chamber. He was poised next to a huge table with an 'A' enclosed by a circle in the center of it. Seven chairs, some quite large, surrounded the table. Hercules was in the second largest one. "Who tempts the Fates by daring to bind the Prince of Power?"

"I did."

Hercules turned to see his former foe and Thor standing side-by-side, unamused.

Seeing his old friend, Hercules's mood changed as fast as Hermes as he gave a cheerful smile. "Thor, mine old friend, how good it is to see… you?"

Thor suddenly became uneasy as she saw Hercules staring at her chest. He had never looked at it like that before, she was certain. She'd have remembered, even with a memory as full of holes as hers was.

Exerting his full godly might, Hercules snapped the cables snaring him and shot up from the chair. He rushed up to Thor and grabbed her breasts. "Zounds, they are real!"

Thor grabbed him by the wrist and twisted his arm backward, "Ware thy hands, else comrade or not, thou shall be taking the place of Prometheus on his stone of woe. And I will see to it the vultures pick at things other than thy entrails." She stared meaningfully at his groin.

Hercules stared at her, stunned. "How can it be that thou art a woman?"

Thor stared at him, bewildered. "I have always been a woman."

"Nay. While much time has passed since last we met, I distinctly remember thou being a man, as many a wench can attest to," he assured her. "Of all mine companions not Olympian, thou were easily the only one almost capable of keeping up with mineself. Remember that time we fornicated with Indra's wives? The ones with four breasts?"

Thor smirked. "Truly that was…" The goddess turned green. "Nay! I never did such things! I am not a pervert!"

"I concur!" Hercules said, a lascivious leer on his face. "There is nothing perverted about wishing to indulge in pleasures only women can experience. And I would be honored to be the one to initiate you in such pleasures." He grabbed her in his arms and bent her low, as though about to kiss her. Thor was so stunned she froze in place.

Before Hercules could lower his lips to hers, his head was engulfed in a giant green palm. "Hulk will not let Muscleman kiss Hammer Girl."

Hercules released Thor, who landed on her bottom. He effortlessly batted away the Hulk's hand. "So, it is a challenge then. To the victor shall go the Goddess of Thunder."

"Hulk accept."

"I don't!" Thor shouted.

Xxxxxxxxxx

A pair of eyes peered through the walls of the mansion, seeing all, hearing all. This was bad. Extraordinarily bad. It was a good thing he had come to Earth to personally supervise the matter regarding Thor. The Enchantress's breaking the Imperial Edict prohibiting contact with Thor had been bad enough, but by some miracle neither Urd nor Skuld had said anything to upset the plan. Hercules was another matter altogether. Being Olympian meant he could ignore the edict, and already he had given Thor too much information. Another word might upset everything, and that could not be allowed to happen. Too much was at stake.

Stretching out with senses far beyond those of anything short of a cosmic entity, he searched the dimensions for anything that could be used to remove Hercules from Thor's presence; anything outside of having to intervene personally was acceptable. Almost instantly he discovered a solution. All he had to do was plant a little information in the leader's head, and then reach out and guide them right in the heart of the room.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

Just as Hulk vs. Hercules Round 2 was about to begin, a swirling vortex of sparkling light filled the far side of the room, taking up nearly the entire wall. All three occupants stopped their argument and tensed up at the unexpected display.

Emerging from the vortex were a dozen women, all but one nearly as tall as Thor. Every one of them was a testament to human beauty and perfection.

The woman in front, taller than everyone but the Hulk, moved boldly forward. She wore a red bodysuit, with pieces cut out along the navel, top, leg and arm. Yellow lightning ran up both sides of her yellow ankle boots. On one of her arms was a manacle with a huge chain on it, one that looked like it weighed two-hundred pounds and could be used to break out of a prison rather than keep one in. She was the most beautiful by far, with long strawberry-blonde locks that traveled halfway down her back and carrying an air of authority about her.

The woman said, "Where is the one called Hercules?"

Hercules's tension disappeared and he shot the woman his most winning smile. "I am, oh giantess of beauty. And might I ask your name?"

"I am Thundra, Queen of the Femizons." Anyone hearing her tone would have no doubt she was not only a leader, but used to being obeyed. "I shall speak plainly. I have come from a planet similar to this one, though in a different dimension. On our world men have been wiped out. Because of this we are forced to seek out virile males, the more powerful the better, in order to have children. Sadly, since we Femizons are incapable of producing male children, we must do this several times a generation. Word reached us of the mighty Hercules and his legendary prowess, and we felt drawn here."

Hercules laughed hard. "I assure you I exceed whatever rumors thou has heard. I have little doubt I could satisfy whatever demands you have of me." It appeared as though he was ready to pick up the lot of them and drag them through the portal himself, but he then turned and gave a questioning look to Thor.

Thor's eyebrow began twitching. "Thou should go. It shall be infinitely less painful than the course of action thou was about to take." She fingered her hammer meaningfully.

"Then it is settled." The god turned to Thundra. "Now, how many women are there?"

Thundra said, "Currently the ratio is about 1000:1, which is why there are other groups searching as well. We should really bring back more than just you." Thundra appraised the nearby Hulk, while he stared at her, oblivious.

"There is no need," Hercules assured her.

"I beg your pardon." Thundra's eyebrows knitted in confusion.

"I am immortal and have tremendous stamina. A thousand shall take but a few months. A mere blink of the eye, as any god can tell you."

"I see," Thundra said, gazing upon him in a new light. "Very well, we shall return to our homeworld now and you may begin aiding us with our procreation problem."

The group departed the way they had arrived, one extra member in their ranks. The vortex closed behind them, as though it had never been.

"Truly a trying day," Thor said, collapsing in her chair.

The Hulk nodded. "Hulk is going to get Little Mouse Man to get him some beans, then Hulk is going to sleep."

"Sleep well, mine comrade. There is much I must ponder." Thor held her hand to chin in thought, trying to sort out the jumble of conflicting and missing memories in her head.

It was a trying night as well.

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

The figure relaxed. That had been close. Too close, and it did not feel as though it had been Fate that had dropped Hercules in Thor's lap. No, this had all the earmarks of one whose primary goal in life was mischief, and confounding Thor to the best of his abilities. Punishment would have to come. Immediate punishment.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Damn!" Xellos said, slamming his staff into the ground.

"What are you getting so worked up for? The show wasn't that interesting," Lina said.

Zelgadis nodded. "Yes, I couldn't really get into it. I couldn't sympathize with the characters because they were too unrealistic. I mean, people running around with superpowers? It's completely ridiculous."

"True," Ameila seconded. "Maybe if they had used some magic in it it would be believable, but as it is, no way."

"And I wasn't amused at all," Lina added. "I can't see this catching on as a form of entertainment. Doing things yourself is much more interesting than watching someone else doing them."

It was at that moment a swirling vortex of sparkling light appeared in the middle of the clearing. A number of incredibly tall, scaly, obese women with yellow skin emerged from it.

The tallest and ugliest among them, who carried an air of authority, spoke, her voice similar to nails being drawn across a chalkboard. "Where is the one called Loki?"

"Never heard of him," Lina said, absently noting that Xellos was beginning to back away.

The woman scratched her head, then snapped her beefy fingers. "Oh, yes, he goes by the name of Xellos here."

"Squinty-eyed guy over there." Lina pointed at him as he had by now made it to the edge of the clearing.

The woman said, "I am Ugley, Queen of the She Beasts," she said, and anyone hearing her tone would have no doubt she was not only a leader, but used to being obeyed. "I shall speak plainly. I have come from a planet similar to this one, though in a different dimension. On our world men have been wiped out. Because of this we are forced to seek out virile males, the smarter the better, since we rate intellect more important than mere muscle. Sadly, since we She Beasts are incapable of producing male children, we must do this several times a generation. Word reached us of the trickster Xellos and his legendary mental prowess, and we felt drawn here."

"He's all yours," Lina said casually.

"My thanks." Ugley pointed a large spear at Xellos. "Get him, girls!"

Xellos tried casting a teleportation spell, but found his abilities blocked. With the She Beasts nearly upon him, he turned tail and ran.

And the race was on.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

End Chapter

Special thanks to:  
Bert Miller Edward 


	21. Act II Chap8 Dating Wrestlers

Avenging Act II, Chapter 8 Dating Professional Wrestlers is Like Porcupines Mating

Any and all C+C appreciated. You can contact me at: the previous chapters and my other works are stored at:

Larry F's new address at:  
http/ newer works at Mediaminer disclaimer: I don't own any of the Marvel characters or other characters from the numerous animes which are within.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It was midnight at the Tendou household, but the darkness held no terror for Nabiki Tendou, who was having difficulty sleeping. Insomnia had always been an occasional problem, but the solution of a little warm milk was only a refrigerator away. That was why she was on her way to the kitchen in the dead of night.

It was also why she spotted the intruder. She only caught a fleeting glance of the person silhouetted in the doorway of the bathroom before she entered it, darting out of sight, but that was all Nabiki needed. No redheaded girls had any business intruding in her domicile. The little thief would learn what it meant to try and poach on Nabiki Tendou's turf. While she might have hated martial arts, she wasn't above using them when the situation called for it. Kicking the crap out of sneak thieves breaking into one's home was an ideal time.

Using her inherent sneakiness, in combination with her martial arts talent, Nabiki skulked silently to the door. She pressed her ear against it. It wasn't as good as using a glass, but it would do in a pinch. It wouldn't do to walk into a trap, even if she could fight her way out of it.

Through the wood Nabiki could hear water running. Perfect. If the girl was next to a faucet, it meant her guard was down. Though what sort of intruder used a bathroom before stealing things?

Nabiki threw open the door to the bathroom and shouted, "Ah ha I've got--". It took the time to utter that phrase for the scene in front of her to register. And then she was uncharacteristically struck silent.

Ranma stood there, tilted bucket held over his head, dripping wet. As one would assume, since he was in the process of cleaning himself, he was naked. Very naked. And facing Nabiki, giving her an ideal view of everything nature had provided the very, very perfect specimen of the male of the species.

It took Ranma a second to react. "Hey!"

The shout snapped Nabiki out of her stupor. Somewhat. Her eyes were still fixed on Ranma. One part in particular. "Sorry. I thought I saw an elephant." She realized what she said, still staring. "I mean an intruder. Did you see a redhead--?"

"Get out!" Ranma shouted, covering himself with the empty bucket.

"Out? Yes, I suppose I should." With her view of Ranma blocked, she recovered enough of her faculties to turn and leave. Her eyes were still widened in disbelief as she headed to her room. Ranma was a hunk of beef in every sense of the word. Every vulger term about endowed men went through her mind. She decided none of them really did Ranma justice.

When Nabiki eventually drifted off to sleep, she had very pleasant dreams indeed.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Hearing the door to his makeshift bedroom slide open, Genma rose up yawning. "How did night patrol go, boy?"

The now clean Ranma flopped onto his mat. "I beat up some idiot called the Gamecock. He was dressed like a deranged chicken. I recommended that when he eventually gets out of jail he should go after Daredevil, since most loser super villains seem to gravitate to him."

Genma watched Ranma closely. Something was wrong with the boy. "You seem awfully tired for fighting oversized poultry."

Ranma remained silent for a moment. Then, just when it seemed he'd roll over and go to sleep, he began speaking. "It's this whole situation with Mom. I think I should hang up the tights."

That woke Genma fully up. He rose to his feet and stomped toward Ranma, towering over him. "Don't be silly, boy. We've put too much time and effort into you taking up the role of superhero. Besides, you seem to like it."

Ranma sounded morose. "But Mom hates me. She even hates my other superhero identity. It's like she hates me two times over. Do you know what it's like when your mom goes on nationwide television, telling everyone she hates you and founds an organization that wants to bring you down?"

"No, I'd say that's something fairly unique that's happened only to you," Genma admitted.

"Well it sucks."

Now Genma was worried. This didn't sound like Ranma at all. "It's just a phase she's going through. She'll get over it. You should see her when she's on the rag. Always saw to it I was on a 'training journey' around that time of the month, if you know what I mean."

Ranma looked like he wanted to retch. "Way too much info, Pop." He paused and considered what Genma had said before. "I'll think about it. But I'm seriously considering retiring and telling Mom we failed. I think her being disappointed in me is better than her actively hating everything I represent."

"Don't be impulsive," Genma insisted.

"I won't rush into any decisions," Ranma said in a tired voice. "But I'm not promising anything." He rolled over, away from Genma, effectively ending the conversation.

Genma lay back down too, staring at the ceiling. He had to raise the boy's spirits, but he didn't know how. And he had to come up with something. He wasn't certain going to Nodoka and admitting failure was better than her actively trying to smear Ranma's name.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Morning arrived, and with it so did Nabiki. Yawning, she headed directly for the kitchen to get something to eat. Despite getting little sleep and having dark lines under her eyes, she had a wide smile on her face.

Her good humor, unusual for someone who was definitively not a 'morning person', was instantly noticed by Kasumi and Akane, who were already in the kitchen. Kasumi paused in preparing breakfast while Akane continued munching on some toast.

Akane spoke through a mouth full of food. "Hey, Nabiki. What's going on?"

"Yes, you seem unusually happy," Kasumi seconded.

A look of intense concentration crossed Nabiki's face, as though she were trying to decide something. Eventually she said, "I had problems sleeping last night, so I went to grab a late night snack. I thought I heard an intruder and ended up accidentally barging in on Ranma while he was in the bath. Let me tell you something, he could have a great career in the porn industry. Most mules would be envious of him."

Kasumi's face reddened. "Nabiki, that's very crude."

Akane nodded. "There's more to a guy than the size of his…" She trailed off as Nabiki grabbed a zucchini and held it up. She went through the courtesy of pretending to examine it, but the gesture was not lost on either girl.

"You've got to be kidding," Akane said.

"It was probably bigger: he was at 'half-mast'," Nabiki clarified, placing the zucchini to her lips and began playing with it.

"Oh my," Kasumi said in awe.

It was at that moment Soun entered the room. He was more than a bit disturbed to see Nabiki behaving in a highly improper manner with a vegetable. "What's going on?"

Kasumi answered. "Good news, Father. Nabiki is showing an interest in Ranma."

Nabiki nearly choked on the zucchini.

Soun looked upon Nabiki in a new light. "You don't say."

Nabiki was still gagging as Akane said, "Yep. She peeked on him in the bath."

Finally extracting the large vegetable, Nabiki choked out, "It was an accident."

Her attempt at recovering lost ground did little good as Kasumi added, "She was just telling us how impressed she was with his… manliness."

"Going on about its great length. I mean going on about it at great length," Akane corrected.

Nabiki panicked. "There's more to men than the size of their--"

Soun cleared his throat in a very loud tone, ending that direction to the conversation. Seeing he had their attention, he continued. "You are quite correct about there being more to men than their physical attributes. Of course your mother used to be very impressed with my own--."

All three girls cleared their throats.

"Right," Soun said.

With the change in subject taken care of, Nabiki said, "Thank you, Daddy. I couldn't agree more." She shot a look of triumph to her sisters.

"As you will find out when you date Ranma," Soun finished.

Nabiki nearly choked again, this time without the benefit of trying to deep throat greenery. "What?"

"It is only a date," Soun assured her. "I'm not saying you have to make a decision now, though you would do the family a great honor if you did," he said in a paternal way. "But it's only fair that you go out with him since your sisters already did."

"But--" Nabiki started to say.

"There are no buts," Soun said in the same tone he had when it came to Nabiki learning the art.

Nabiki grimaced, but she had planned for a response to this eventuality. She had prepared for just about any attempt her father might make at attaching her to Ranma. Dating was easy compared to some of the other scenarios she had mentally come up with. "Fine, he pays for everything. No commitments whatsoever."

"Done," Soun said. "I'm certain once you've spent some time with him, you'll discover he's a nice young man."

"Yeah, I'm sure." Nabiki shot her sisters mutual glares that promised revenge at some point in their lives. Neither backed down, returning the stares, indicating there were no neutrals in the fiancé war.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Akane sat at her receptionist desk in Tofu's office, delighted at the unexpected turn of events of the day. With any luck, Nabiki would hit it off with Ranma so well the two of them would be engaged and Akane would be out of the stupid fiancé fiasco at last. Once the Ranma situation was settled, then Akane could concentrate solely on the object of her own affections. Kasumi was a bit of a problem, of course, and it would be preferable if Ranma chose her, but it had gotten to the point where Akane would take any victory she could have.

While she was fantasizing about married life with the man of her dreams when Tofu entered the reception area from his office in the back. A blush rose to Akane's cheeks. "Good afternoon, Dr. Tofu."

"Good afternoon, Akane," Tofu greeted cheerily. "The first appointment isn't for another half hour, so you should have some time to settle in. I'm going in back to arrange things."

"Yes, Dr. Tofu." Akane genuflected as the doctor returned to his office.

Akane had just risen to her feet when she felt a pair of hands grab her firmly by the hips. She gave a cry and darted out of the grasp. She barely caught the edge of the desk to keep from falling. Despite that it still took her a moment to regain her bearings before she turned on the person who had grabbed her.

"What do you think you're--" the epithet died off as she recognized the grabber. "Oh. Hello, Mrs. Ono."

Before Akane could ask the woman what she had been doing, (in a polite way since she didn't want to alienate someone so close to the man she adored) the elderly matron said, "Has anyone ever told you you have wonderful hips, my dear?"

Akane laughed weakly, "No, not really."

Mrs. Ono nodded in approval. "Fine hips. A good wife needs big hips for childbearing."

"Good point." Akane wasn't sure what to make of the conversation. It almost sounded like approval of Akane's potential as a daughter-in-law, but she dared not hope for such a thing. Besides, she was probably reading more into it than was there.

Mrs. Ono continued peering at Akane, as though she were looking into her very soul. "So, my dear, what are your feelings about Hydra?"

A shift to current events? The woman was a strange one. "The terrorist group?"

Mrs. Ono drew back, horrified. "Bah, that's just mindless propaganda spouted off by corrupt organizations like SHIELD that are run by anachronistic fossils like Nick Fury, who should be assassinated immediately!" Mrs. Ono calmed down and composed herself. "What I mean to say is Hydra has done many good things, such as empowering third world nations."

Akane stared at her in bewilderment. "Empowerment? They sell arms to dictatorships and terrorists."

"Fledgling governments often go through a brief period of civic unrest after overthrowing corrupt regimes that are established under the guise of 'free elections.' Besides, you know what they say; one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. It all depends on who wins in the end and gets to write the history books. And continues to control them as others sometimes try to rewrite history." Mrs. Ono continued watching Akane closely. "What about the inroads in bio-technology Hydra has accomplished?"

Akane's bewilderment doubled. "Like what? The Death Spore Bomb?"

"The Death Spore had many practical applications. And it wasn't like they didn't have the cure as well."

Akane couldn't come up with a response to that, since the only practical application it had been used for was for Hydra attempting to blackmail the world with it. Luckily all the existing material on it had been destroyed with Hydra Island, or so SHIELD claimed.

"What about their technological advancements?" Mrs. Ono ventured.

"Like their QUASImodo AI? It tried to take over the world by overriding every computer system on the planet."

Again Mrs. Ono appeared offended. "I'll have you know that was AIM's fault. Their big headed stooge of a leader sabotaged the AI before it could be used for its intended purpose."

"Oh? That's news to me. Where did you hear that?" Akane asked.

"Sources, girl, When you get to my age, you cultivate plenty of sources." Mrs. Ono looked at Akane in open disapproval.

Akane didn't know what she had done to offend the old woman, but suddenly had the idea that if she were to marry Dr. Tofu she wouldn't be spending a lot of time with her mother-in-law. "I have to get back to work," Akane said in the hopes the old woman would leave her alone.

It was at that moment the door to the office opened. Akane wondered for a moment which patient had arrived early when she spotted her sister entering, a book tucked under her arm. Akane was barely able to conceal her irritation. "Kasumi, what are you doing here?"

She held the book out. "I'm here to return this. I borrowed it from Dr. Tofu."

Akane gave her a borderline glare. "You've been doing that a lot lately. This isn't a library, you know."

"But Dr. Tofu seems so happy to loan them to me. Deliriously so," Kasumi explained.

"I can return it to him." Akane held out her hand.

"Oh no, I'll do it," Kasumi said just a touch too quickly.

Before Akane could say anything further, Mrs. Ono interrupted. "How wonderful to see a young woman who's so responsible. It's so hard to find one in this day and age. And such nice hips."

Kasumi looked at the woman, who had maneuvered behind her, in confusion. "Ah, thank you, Miss?"

"It's Mrs. Ono, Dearie. I'm Tofu's mother."

Kasumi bowed low. "It's an honor to meet you."

Mrs. Ono examined the young woman closely. "So tell me, do you drop by to see Tofu often?"

"Only three or four times a week," Akane mumbled.

That seemed to please the old woman. "I see, I see. Tell me, what are your feelings regarding the organization known as Hydra?"

"The terrorists?" Kasumi said with excitement in her voice. "They deserve to be blasted powerfully and repeatedly for their numerous crimes. The Avengers should be the one's to take them down, especially the Wasp. She'd enjoy stinging all of those bad people as punishment for the awful things they've done."

Mrs. Ono made a sour face. "I see. You're very passionate about super heroes. How unfortunate. Go and return your book, Dearie." Mrs. Ono picked up her portable shrine, which she had left next to the door. "I have to go. There are… things I must do." And promptly left the office.

Akane and Kasumi in stunned silence as the door swung shut.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Three women waited patiently before the JumboTron-sized view screen that dominated the cathedral-like chamber of the secret sublevel of Hydra's main headquarters.

The first, and obviously oldest, of the trio, was a woman in her thirties. She had long, dark hair and was dressed in a blue wrestling singlet and a red headband. Next to her was a blonde, much younger, wearing a grey singlet. The third was by far the largest of the trio, built like a bodybuilder. Unlike the others she wore a chain mesh suit, spiked helmet, and oversized boots.

The oldest looked to the blonde. "Kai, do you have any idea why the Imperial Hydra summoned us?"

The blonde shook her head. "I don't know, Mio. It might be a mission. We are super agents, after all, even if only Poundcakes has actual powers." She looked to the large woman.

"It better not take too long. We have a match for the tag titles tonight at the Tokyo Dome and I don't want to be late," Mio said.

It was at that moment the view screen flickered on and the green cowl of the Imperial Hydra appeared. Before the women could shout out the Hydra motto, a deep male voice interrupted them. "I'm in a hurry, my Grapplers. I have an important mission for one of you."

"One of us?" Mio asked.

"Yes, Titania. I need to make a choice between you, Letha, and Poundcakes," the Imperial Hydra said ominously. "It is a… recruitment mission. But first, a few questions. None of you are lesbians, are you?"

Titania snarled, "Just because Kai and I are professional wrestlers that take long showers together, washing each other's nubile bodies, lathering each other up, especially our breasts, does not make us lesbians!"

Letha nodded in agreement.

Poundcakes said, "I'm not either."

"I see. Excellent. Excellent," the Imperial Hydra cooed. "Now, are any of you married?"

Titania said, "No, but I do get hit on by a lot of morons at bars."

Letha blushed slightly. "I have yet to meet a man who's better than my brother. Until I do, I shall never give up my purity."

"Nope, no luck with men lately either," Poundcakes finished.

"I see. I see," the Imperial Hydra said. "Now, for the most important question of all: which of you has the biggest hips?"

Titania and Letha both stared at their enormous comrade.

"I won the Miss Big Hips contest last year," Poundcakes said proudly.

"Jackpot!" the Imperial Hydra cheered and did a little jig. The mysterious figure composed itself a moment later. "Very well, how would you like to settle down with a handsome doctor?"

"Who do I have to kill?" Poundcakes was all but frothing at the mouth.

"No need for that… at this time. We want this individual recruited into Hydra." The screen split into two and a picture of Dr. Tofu appeared next to their leader.

"Most handsome," Letha admitted.

"Makes me want to switch back, or it would if I was a lesbian. Which I'm not. I'm just in touch with my masculinity," Titania said.

The Imperial Hydra turned toward the picture next to her. "It's not the best picture of him. He never did take pictures well. You should see his driver's license. Boy looks like he's stoned out of his mind."

Poundcakes disagreed, all but drooling with lust. "He's absolutely gorgeous. Leave it to me, Sir. I'll land this handsome doctor in the name of Hydra."

"Excellent," the Imperial Hydra said again. "I'll arrange an omiai. He must not discover your affiliation with Hydra. Tell him you're a personal physical trainer for Multi Headed Serpent International. That way he won't suspect a thing."

Poundcakes said, "It will be as you order. Hail Hydra! Cut off one head and--"

The image of the Imperial Hydra disappeared.

"Hey, he left before I finished our motto," Poundcakes complained.

"I hear he's been doing that a lot lately," Titania said. "Probably getting old."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Tofu held his hands to his head in misery. Kasumi had come by yet again, which would have ordinarily sent him into a joyous delirium. Only the problem was she had come to 'talk shop'. Superhero talk, to be specific, a topic he wanted nothing to do with. She had even shrunk down to Wasp size, which she felt was more 'in tune' with the nature of the conversation. It also left Tofu much more coherent than usual with her. He almost wished he hadn't been.

He hated superheroing and was counting the days until Kasumi would revert to her normal, placid self, eager to make hearth and home her top priority. But now all she ever did was talk about superheroing, fighting tactics, which villain she hoped they would fight next, and what costume she should wear to their next Avengers meeting. It was troublesome, and heaped a world of pressure on his shoulders. He wanted nothing to do with dressing gaudily and beating up people that needed therapy, not bludgeoning. The only reason he put up with the aggravation was for Kasumi's sake, but the pressure was building.

Tofu stared longingly at the drawer to his desk. The last patient had been seen, and he had time to himself. He turned away from it, but then looked at it again. Quickly his hand went to the handle and pulled it open.

On top of some papers was a gleaming metal flask filled with brandy. It had been a gift from some of his medical school friends upon his graduation. Tofu had been a bit of a party animal during his college days, which would have surprised many. More than once he had hit the bottle hard enough to make him swear off liquor for the rest of his life, only to repeat the actions the very next weekend. Still, he had chosen to stop his drinking after graduation, only occasionally tying one on from time to time. It was periodic, and he hadn't touched a drop in well over a year. In fact, he had only kept the flask around out of habit. But now….

Well, one drink wouldn't really hurt.

He grabbed the flask, seeing his distorted image in its mirrored surface. For a moment he almost put it back, but then the conversation with Kasumi reared its ugly head. He unscrewed the top and took a swig. The liquid sent a familiar fire down his throat. A good fire. He decided to take a second swig. Then a third. He had forgotten just how good brandy tasted.

He took a moment to savor the sensation in his mouth, the flask in his lap with the door to the room burst open and his mother entered.

"Knock, Mother!" Tofu snarled. His hands were a blur as he screwed the top back on and shoved the flask in the drawer.

Rather than being chagrined, Mrs. Ono took the initiative. "Don't take that tone with me, young man. I taught you to respect your elders, and if you've forgotten that, well, it's not too late for you to relearn."

For a moment Tofu almost snapped back, then he caught himself and his temper. He bowed his head apologetically. "Please forgive me, Mother. It's been a long day."

"Very well." Delight replaced anger. "I have great news for you. Your bachelor days are over. I've arranged an omiai for you."

Tofu felt like throwing up, despite only having three drinks. It was a child's worst nightmare, the meddling parent who thought they could arrange their offspring's life for them. He had to act fast before it was too late. "I don't need--"

She cut him off, his reaction anticipated. "But I do need you to provide me with grandchildren. When is the last time you dated?"

"Umm… it was a while ago." He saw the look in his mother's eyes. "All right, it was in college."

She nodded in satisfaction, as though the matter was settled. "Years ago, and you're not getting any younger, doctor or no, and neither am I. So you will go on this omiai."

Tofu sighed. She wasn't giving him even the hint of an option. Best to cut his losses and save his struggles for the upcoming date. "Yes, Mother." He officially acquiesced. He'd spend some time with the girl, pretend he enjoyed himself, and then tell her it just wasn't working out between them. And if that didn't work, the old, 'Before this goes any further, you should know I have a highly contagious sexually transmitted disease' would send her packing. That one never failed.

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

Nabiki lay on her back, scowling at the ceiling as she tried with all her might to figure a way out of her predicament. She had to date Ranma; there was no other option. The only question was how to make him hate it. She could be the bitch from hell. She could play uber-kawaii and make him spend everything he had, including his mortal soul, to please her, then give away everything he bought her right before his eyes. She could make him see a bunch of 'chick flicks'. She could fake being a lesbian. No, that wouldn't work. He'd probably ask if he could watch her with another woman.

The mental turmoil and potential plans came to an abrupt halt as Akane entered the living room in a panic. Glad for the distraction, Nabiki asked in a droll voice, "What's up your ass?"

Akane ignored the barb. "Dr. Tofu is going on an omiai!"

Nabiki rolled her eyes at Akane's overreaction. Unable to resist, she said, "Good for him."

"No, bad," Akane insisted. "This girl is completely wrong for him."

"Have you met her?"

Akane wrung her hands, hesitating before answering. "Well, no, but I just know she's wrong for him."

"Because she's not you?"

"Yes. I mean no," Akane corrected. "I mean he needs someone who understands him and complements him at work as well as in the heart."

"Like you?"

Akane turned red, partially in anger and partially in embarrassment. "Quit putting words in my mouth."

Nabiki made a clucking sound with her tongue. "Look, Akane, don't you think this whole 'high school crush on an older guy' thing has gone on long enough? You need someone the same age as you who can understand the trials and tribulations of being sixteen. Tell you what. You can have my date with Ranma. Go out with him tonight and I'll stay home. You might be surprised at how much happier everyone will be."

Akane glared as evilly as she ever had at her sister. Between the offhand manner in which she tossed aside Akane's love and the transparent ploy to use her to get out of the engagement, made her more resentful than she could ever remember being. "Do you really think only about yourself?"

Nabiki returned the cold glare. "Since no one else has ever thought about me, I guess the task falls on my shoulders. So yes, I do."

Akane hadn't thought her sister would be so unabashed in admitting it. With nothing really to argue about, she simply turned on her heel. "I'm going to follow Dr. Tofu and make sure he doesn't make any mistakes he'll regret for the rest of his life," and promptly exited the room.

Nabiki sniffed disdainfully and laid back down.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It was a half hour later that Ranma appeared. He had just finished cleaning up after a vigorous training session with his father. He was delighted to know that now, beyond a shadow of any doubt, he was physically superior to his father. He might not have been quite as skilled, the old man still had a thing or two to teach him, but his physical superiority in every other aspect made up for that difference. And with each new technique Ranma learned the gap between the two would widen. The student had passed the teacher, and he couldn't be happier for it.

As he walked past the stairs, he noticed Nabiki. Curiously, she was dressed to go out and seemed to be in a hurry. "What's up?"

Nabiki said, "I'm going to follow my dear little sister so she doesn't do anything she'll regret later on in life." She looked Ranma up and down for a moment, then a grin crept across her face. "Why don't you come along?"

Ranma considered that. He didn't have any superheroic activities or class work. With the daily training session done, he was bored. "Sure."

Nabiki smiled warmly. "Excellent. Why, with us going out like this, one could think of it as a date of sorts."

"Huh?" Ranma asked, suddenly apprehensive.

"Let's just go. I overheard Akane say where she's going." She grabbed Ranma's arm and ran off with him before he could protest further.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Tofu Ono took a deep drink from his wineglass, the fourth one in the last hour. The so-called omiai had been a disaster from the beginning. He wasn't attracted to this 'Kyoko' in the slightest. She was so heavily muscled she looked like a scaled down version of the Hulk. And she didn't act like a proper Japanese woman at all. She had probably never cooked a meal in her life.

Still, Tofu felt the need to act the role of the proper gentleman. It wouldn't do to alienate his masculine-looking date. It wasn't her fault she wasn't his type. Besides, maybe he'd find something redeeming about her.

Draining the last of wine from his glass, and flagging down a waiter to get another one, Tofu began to talk, slurring just a bit, "So, what is it you do for a living?"

"I'm a super v… that is, I'm a super good physical trainer."

"That's nice." At least it explained her bulky physique. "So, how did you meet my mother?"

"Orders."

"Pardon?"

Poundcakes caught herself again. "That is, I ordered an omiai through a professional agency. She must have pulled my dossier and thought we'd be compatible."

"Dossier?"

Poundcakes began sweating profusely. She wasn't used to undercover work. Stomping on things with the cybernetically implanted vibratory devices in her legs was more her style. She decided to change the subject before she ruined everything. "Did you know I can crack coconuts with my thighs?"

"That's… interesting." Actually it was a bit terrifying. "Exactly how did you discover that particular talent anyway?"

Poundcakes began sweating more. "It's a long story."

"Aren't they all?" Tofu said tiredly, tempted to tell her the one about the normal doctor who discovered one day that he could grow to a height of fifty feet, then was drafted as a superhero. When the next drink arrived, he finished it in two gulps.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Are you certain we're inconspicuous?" Letha asked her companion.

Titania fingered her trenchcoat. "If we end up in a fight, we'll need to get down to our costumes quick. We can't do the old 'duck into a phone booth and change into costume in a half second at superspeed thing'. Aside from not having superspeed, it's not like there's any phone booths around to do it in anymore. Everything is cell phone oriented now."

"Maybe." Titania had made a good point, but Letha still thought they stood out since it was a warm evening and no one else was dressed in trenchcoats.

"How's it going in there anyway?" Titania asked.

Letha, who earlier had walked past the clear window to the restaurant and watched Poundcakes and her date eating, shrugged. "Hard to say. I'm not good at reading lips."

Titania nodded. "If she hasn't clotheslined him by now, things are probably going well."

"Maybe we didn't need to chaperone them after all."

Titania shook her head. "You know how important it is to the Imperial Hydra that this mission succeeds. I have no desire for our next 'landmine death match' to have real claymores instead of props surrounding the ring. I--" Titania's eyes narrowed as she looked toward the exterior of the restaurant. There was a girl with a cane peering through the corner of the window, trying hard not to be seen while looking in.

"Suspicious person at six o'clock." She pointed the girl out to her partner.

Letha looked at her closely. "I recognize her. She was at the train station where Poundcakes met her date."

Titania cracked her knuckles. "Told you it was a good idea we came along. Let's go conduct a little interrogation."

The two moved toward the girl.

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

"Tell me again why you think Akane's going to do something stupid," Ranma asked as he and Nabiki lurked a good distance away from Akane, making certain to hide behind corners as they tailed her. They had been doing it for the better part of a half hour, and it was becoming annoying. He had come along to not be bored, and the exact opposite was happening.

"She's overprotective of her boss. She's afraid if he marries she'll be out of a job." It was an oversimplification of things, but it was better than letting Ranma know Akane was interested in someone else. He might suddenly get some stupid 'noble' idea about standing aside and leaving the fiancée matter down to her and Kasumi, and Nabiki would have none of that.

"I guess that makes sense," Ranma said. "She hasn't missed a day of work since I've been here, even when she had that really bad cold."

"Akane is perseverance personified once she fixates on something." It was then something dawned on Nabiki. "You're pretty good at this watching without being spotted stuff."

"Been on lots of stakeouts," Ranma said absentmindedly.

Nabiki's eyebrows arched. "What was that?"

Ranma suddenly realized what had slipped out. "I'm hungry for going out for some steak."

"That's not what you said."

Ranma was about to panic when he saw two suspicious figures in trenchcoats confront Akane. He could tell by their belligerent postures something bad was about to happen. He had never been so happy to see someone threatened in his life. "Hey, we have to stop them!" Ranma immediately broke cover and ran toward Akane.

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

Titania held Akane up by the back of her neck, eyeing her suspiciously. "Okay, kid, why are you stalking our friend. Don't try and deny it, we've seen you doing it all night. You wouldn't happen to be working for SHIELD, now, would you?"

A voice behind them barked, "Hands off the girl."

Titania did so, dropping Akane, who landed on her bottom. She rubbed her sore behind as she used her cane to return to her feet.

"Who the hell are you and what's this girl to you?" Titania asked as Letha remained to the side, watching events unfold.

"I'm Cap--." Ranma bit his tongue. "Ranma Saotome, and I'm cohabitating with that girl."

"Don't make it sound so sordid!" Akane shouted.

Before Titania could say anything else a figure came at her from the opposite side, sucker punching her in the jaw and sending her flying. Immediately Letha fell into a defensive stance, having been caught off guard as well.

Nabiki brushed her hands casually. "Geez, Ranma, who taught you to fight? Always go for the cheap shot when it presents itself. Letting someone know you're around like that is practically begging to get your ass kicked."

Offended, Ranma said, "Sometimes you can defuse a situation with words instead of resorting to violence."

Nabiki arched an eyebrow. "Oh, and how often does it work for you?"

"Well… I… that is." Once Ranma thought about it, he realized he could never remember a time when he had defused a situation with talk. It always ended up becoming a fight.

"Not bad." Titania returned to her feet, smiling at Nabiki. It wasn't a happy smile. It was one of those grins that said, 'That hurt. Let me share the pain with you, except multiply it a few times and make it last longer'. "Of course, in my profession, I'm used to cheap shots. I have yet to lose a match because of one."

Nabiki smirked, openly confronting her opponent. "Now that you've stepped into better lighting, I see you're a lot older than I originally thought."

Titania's eyebrow twitched. "You are so going to bleed for that one." She tossed aside her trenchcoat, revealing her black, body tight wrestling uniform.

Nabiki's smirk doubled. "Looks like that outfit has some pretty good push up action, old lady. You can hardly detect that sag."

Letha held a hand to her head. "Try not to kill her. It would draw unwanted attention to us."

Titania practically frothed at the mouth. "I want ten."

"Fine."

Nabiki watched the exchange closely. "Ten what?"

"It's the number of broken bones you'll have before she's finished with you," Letha explained. "You're getting off lucky. She had a thirty once for someone that was a lot less offensive than you. Of course that was from a guy. She really hates it when guys rub her wrong."

"Bones make nice crunching sounds they break. Listen closely and you'll hear them." Titania charged leveling a fist at Nabiki's head.

Nabiki dodged the blow, weaving to the side before landing a jab right on Titania's jaw. It barely fazed the woman, but that was acceptable to Nabiki. The attack had been designed to probe her foe's defenses rather than inflict damage. If she could have taken Titania out with that, she would have been so weak there wouldn't be any sense in bothering with a probe.

Titania tried an uppercut that missed as well. Again Nabiki retaliated with a punch to the jaw, this one with more force behind it, but not a totally committed blow.

Titania tried several more punches, each slower than the last. In response, Nabiki increased the power of her return punches, landing each. One split Titania's lip. "Old and slow," Nabiki taunted.

Titania snarled and charged. Convinced she had the measure of her opponent's abilities, Nabiki went for a high kick intended to end the fight in quick and dramatic fashion. However Titania shifted the point of her attack as Nabiki lashed out with her leg. The older woman aimed lower, tackling Nabiki's pivot leg and knocking her down. Titania then rolled up holding onto Nabiki's leg. She sat up on her haunches on top of Nabiki's back, pinning her to the ground. She tucked the leg under her arm and pulled backward on it. "A half-Boston crab should be enough to finish you off."

Nabiki panicked. It felt like her knee was going to be pulled out of joint. She lashed backward with a chop into the back of Titania's bent leg. It was due more to luck than skill that the blow hit a nerve that made Titania release the hold.

Nabiki returned to her feet. By then Titania recklessly ran forward one arm brought back behind her, not even bothering to try and defend herself. Nabiki went for a kick to the woman's unprotected mid-section. The kick landed cleanly, making Titania gasp for a second, but the older woman continued through with the blow, shouting "Idakaya Bomb Bar!" and clotheslining Nabiki, nearly taking off her head in the process. Nabiki dropped the ground like a rock, barely moving.

Titania rubbed at the spot Nabiki had kicked, surprised to see her still moving on the ground. "Not bad, kid. Not many can stay conscious after receiving the most lethal clothesline in the business. I developed it after getting hit on by one too many drunks at a bar. They never get up. And now." She lifted the nearly unconscious Nabiki up by the back of her neck holding her high up in the air. "Let's see how many bones I can break with the 'Mortuary Slam'."

Just before she could bring Nabiki down into the concrete Ranma grabbed her by the arm that held the middle Tendou girl. Using his superior strength, he forced Titania to release Nabiki, who was barely able to break her fall. She crumpled into a ball on the ground, holding her neck and gasping for breath.

"That's enough. You won," Ranma assured the woman.

Titania's response was to try to hit Ranma with an elbow, but he casually blocked it. Titania was quick to follow up with a high spinning back kick. Ranma ducked under the kick, then came up with a palm strike to the woman's jaw and a punch to her gut. Far more powerful than anything Nabiki had done, Titania fell to one knee, winded.

Ranma looked down at his foe, ready for anything. "Now to--" Whatever else he was about to say was cut off as a blur came across his face, hitting him with a high knee and sending him sprawling backward. Reflexes took over as he tried rolling with the powerful blow, but still it made his teeth rattle. He shook off the worst effects of the shot, cradling his jaw.

"If you're going to attack my mentor when she hasn't had a chance to recover from her last fight, it's the same as attacking me," Letha said. There wasn't really anger in her voice; it was more a statement of fact than anything else.

"Fair enough." Ranma decided there was no point in wasting bravado with this one, who had been so silent during the fight he had forgotten she was there. It was best to end this as quickly as he could.

Ranma tried to finish the fight with a tremendous punch to the jaw. Letha backpedaled even as the fist came crashing toward her. It glanced off her shoulder. Ranma was mentally calculating his next attack when she grabbed the fist with both hands. Quick as a snake she raised her entire body up, locking her legs around Ranma's upper body while repositioning her grip on his arm, holding it out, extended and straight, while simultaneously trying to twist it in different directions. She was literally hanging in mid-air by Ranma's arm.

"That's Kai's cross-armbreaker," Titania explained as Ranma winced in pain as Letha attempted to twist in directions nature hadn't intended. "You might want to give up before she bends your arm into a paper clip."

Rather than yield, Ranma brought Kai up over his head on sheer muscle power alone. He then threw her hard into the ground, just like he would spiking a football.

"You were saying… What?" Ranma was stunned to find that Letha was still wrapped firmly around his arm, just like before. Her eyes burned furiously as she gritted her teeth and held on, continuing to twist his arm.

Ranma could feel the joints starting to give. He only had seconds before this deceptively strong, durable girl dislocated, and maybe broke, his arm. Using every ounce of strength he had Ranma once again brought the girl up off the ground, the move hurting doubly so since he had to use the arm she was in the process of breaking. Rather than bringing her up over his head, he swung her back, then forward.

This time he swung her like a bat headfirst into a telephone pole. The force of the blow was too much for Letha, and she released the hold as her body remained right where it was while Ranma's arm continued on the follow through. She fell to the ground unmoving.

Ranma shook the kinks out of his arm, which still ached with the way it had been twisted. That had been a near thing. Still he could not help being concerned about his opponent, who lay limply on the ground. He walked over to her to check her out. "Hey, are you--"

As Ranma bent over her legs shot up, wrapping them around his neck. Before he could react she brought him forward as she drove Ranma headfirst into the ground with her legs.

Groggily Letha returned to her feet, shaking her head. Amazingly, Ranma did the same.

The two stared at each other, and then smiled.

Titania winced. Earlier it had been Kai warning her to control her temper. Now Titania didn't waste her breath. Kai had that look in her eye, the same one she had when she fought the Air Master and lost. She had found a worthy opponent, one that could make her better, win or lose. She'd fight this Ranma guy until one of them couldn't move.

She hoped Kai didn't mess him up too badly.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

'--And so that's how I won the Miss Big Hips competition last year. Maybe after dinner you could place those skilled physician's hands of yours on them and get a firm grip, if you know what I mean," Poundcakes said.

Yes, Tofu knew exactly what she meant, and it was all he could do to keep from throwing up. Instead he took another drink. Six total in the last hour, and he was starting to feel it, though not enough to eradicate the annoying cow before him.

He was about to say as much when two figures came hurtling through the front window of the restaurant, sending a spray of glass everywhere. Their momentum was so great they skidded across the table, kicking the glass out of his hand.

"Hey, that was mine!" Tofu complained as the two figures rolled on the ground, punching, kicking, and even scratching one another.

The two separated far enough apart to start properly kicking and punching one another again. They were a dervish of fists and feet, blows landing as frequently as not.

While Tofu stared in sorrow at his empty hand, Poundcakes trembled in anger. She rose to her feet, blood in her eyes as she approached Ranma. "You ruined my date!" she bellowed, and lashed out with a foot.

Unfortunately for Ranma, he was blocking one of Letha's punches at the time and took Poundcakes' kick in the side. A blow like that delivered from an ordinary person would have been annoying, but since it was backed by cybernetic vibratory circuitry, he was hurled through the air, and then a wall. He went sailing into the kitchen where he wiped out ten dinners about to be served up, as well as a soufflé that the chef had cooked to show his staff how one was properly done. He didn't get up.

For Poundcakes, it wasn't enough. She bellowed, "For ruining my date, I'm going to stomp you into a bloody smear."

She took two steps in that direction when Letha kicked her in the chest hard enough to knock her off her feet. It took Poundcakes a second to recover from the shock of who had kicked her as well as the blow itself. But when she did return to her feet, she was twice as angry as before.

"What was that for?" she roared.

Letha didn't back down for a second. "That was the best fight I've had in months, but you interfered and ruined it!"

"That's nothing compared to my date being ruined!" Poundcakes said menacingly. "But since you're all hot and bothered for a fight, I'll give you one."

"Don't bother. This date is over."

Both women turned to look at the speaker: Tofu.

Anger changed to sorrow as tears welled in Poundcakes' eyes. "But why?"

There was resentment in Tofu's voice as he spoke. "I just can't respect someone whose first response is violence. I want a girl who's gentle and nice. Who can remain calm and levelheaded through any crisis. One who would try to solve things peacefully. Frankly, you aren't even remotely the sort of person I'm interested in. You're more suited to be some senseless super-villainic brute."

Now tears flowed freely down Poundcakes' face. Bawling her eyes out, she ran through the opening made by Letha and Ranma, never looking back.

Titania, who had entered the restaurant just in time to see her friend's public humiliation, said, "If I were a lesbian, I'd be glad I swore off men after seeing that. Come on, Kai."

Letha waited a moment for a stunned and sore Ranma to return to the dining room, holding his side in obvious pain. She said, "I hope we can have a true conclusion to our fight someday."

Ranma grinned, then winced as he clutched his side. Letha gave him a brief salute, then left the dining room.

Akane limped over to Dr. Tofu. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, thanks for asking," Ranma said acerbically from off to the side.

Glassy-eyed from all the alcohol he had consumed, it took Tofu a second to get his thoughts in order. "Akane, what are you doing here?"

Akane panicked. She had been so concerned about Tofu she hadn't thought of a believable explanation. Her eyes darted around the room, then fell upon the perfect excuse. "I was with Ranma when that woman attacked him for no reason."

Tofu looked back and forth between the two. "You were on a date?"

"Never!" Akane said. "He was on a date with Nabiki and I sort of ran into them and we made it a threesome."

"I was in a threesome in college once," Tofu said dreamily. "Fraternity prank. Although I wasn't in the fraternity. It was one played on me. My ass was sore afterwards."

Akane looked scandalized.

"I got drunk and rolled down a hill, ending up with a bunch of scrapes with cinders in my backside. It's a long story. I'd better go help Ranma."

Akane became helplessly lost by the multiple directions the conversation had taken, and decided it was probably best to not try and sort it out.

After Tofu gave Ranma a brief examination, and determined he suffered from nothing more than some sore ribs, the quartet left the establishment before somebody tried to hit them with the repair bill.

As they walked down the street, Ranma said, "I hope I get to fight that chick again."

"I hope I don't. She hits hard for an old hag." Nabiki held her neck gingerly. "One thing I have to admit, Saotome, a date with you certainly isn't boring. Brutal. Painful. But not boring."

Ranma stared at her blankly. "We were on a date?"

"A very interesting one. Be very clear on that if either of our fathers ask."

"Oh, yeah, I guess we were then." Ranma relaxed, hoping Nabiki had a miserable enough time that she wouldn't ask for another. Unless she was into being beaten on her dates, which would make Ranma want to date her even less.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

End Chapter, Only one more left in Act II

BTW, Mio Hayase and Kai Sampagita are from Air Master. And Mio is based off the first Titania who got whacked by Scourge when Marvel made a new Titania that went over much better than the first. Gamecock was indeed a one shot character that is probably more ridiculous than 'the Ringer'. 


	22. Act II Chap9 Serpents Part A

Prologue

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jonas Hale, Roxxon's Oil and Gas operations chief, surveyed the sparse Japanese countryside before his eyes settled on the scene before him. While he disliked field work, he did whatever his boss, Hugh Jones, ordered. And when the owner of Roxxon said, "Go to the middle of nowhere and make sure this item gets to me," one hung up the phone, jumped in their limousine, and arranged for their corporate jet to take them to the middle of nowhere, if they liked their high paying job.

At least Jonas liked what he saw. They were slightly ahead of schedule, a good thing considering what had happened to the previous similar operations. And a part of him was glad at being present. If this item worked the way some of the people in R+D thought it would, he might need to transfer over to the New Energy Division, and being personally involved in securing the artifact would earn him plenty of brownie points. There was nothing like being at ground zero when a new event was on the horizon to boost one's career.

The local head of operations for Roxxon, Yoshihiro Kimura, walked over to Jonas. "It's secure, Sir," he said in impeccable English.

"Seal the door and load it on the transport," Jonas ordered. As the doors to the portable vault were shut and the equipment that would seal it was moved into position, Jonas noted how worried Yoshihiro looked. It was time to be a responsible boss and reassure the employees. "What is it?"

At first it appeared Yoshihiro would say nothing, then he began talking quickly, a torrent released from a burst dam. "I'm a bit worried, Sir. I heard that the other pieces of the artifact were stolen by a team of super-villains."

Jonas jerked slightly. That was supposed to be confidential. "Where did you hear that?"

Yoshihiro became more nervous, and not for the same reason that had unnerved him in the first place. He began to babble some nonsensical explanation when Jonas cut him off.

"Never mind. I suppose it shows you have some initiative and resourcefulness to have dug up that information." If Yoshihiro wanted to rise up the corporate ladder, and anyone at his level by definition wanted to, he would need those abilities. And if he was very good at it, Jonas would keep a close eye on him as both potential resource and/or rival. "What I say goes no further than here, is that understood?"

"Yes sir."

Jonas looked around to ascertain the two were indeed alone, then continued. "When the Challengers of the Fantastic and Fantastic Four defeated Prester John, his weapon, the so-called 'Evil Eye of Avalon,' was shattered into seven pieces and sent to the far corners of the Earth. The Board and Mr. Jones felt the Eye might be a viable form of alternative energy and sent out teams to recover the pieces. Of the seven, one was recovered by AIM, two more by an unknown party, and two by us. Make that three including this one. We are also in the process of recovering the final one. However, the facility that housed the two pieces we already had was indeed raided by a group of SPBs. They successfully stole the pieces, which is why we took special measures to protect this piece."

Jonas pointed to the giant container. "That mobile vault is made of adamantium. Not adamantium steel. Pure adamantium." He watched as someone applied a liquid to the seal. Within seconds it hardened. "And now that the piece of the Eye is inside, the door itself is now sealed with adamantium we had been keeping in its liquid state. Now that it's hardened, even we can't open it. At least not here. The only way to open it is with a molecular rearranger, and it's not like you can pick one up in your local department store."

"But the vault itself could be stolen," Yoshihiro pointed out.

Jonas nodded. "True, but we're taking extra security precautions there as well.

Yoshihiro looked around. "Triple the usual number of security guards?" he asked dubiously.

"Superheroes." Jonas pointed at what appeared to be a standard yellow school bus approaching from the west. The pair watched as it pulled up to the site, only to be surrounded by a large number of guards with high tech weaponry. Yoshihiro watched in disbelief as four men dressed in American Football uniforms exited the bus. They wore red tops, white pants, and full padding. Each had a black helmet with a vicious-looking bat etched on the side. The outfits only differed by the numbers on each man's jersey. However, despite the identical nature of their outfits, they were easy to tell apart. One was huge, both in height and girth. Most sumos would probably fall before someone that big. A second was small, with oversized hands and huge bare feet, and almost seemed to move like a monkey. One of the others was short as well, though there seemed to be something… furtive about him. The final member was tall and from his bearing the leader. He had an oversized sports equipment bag, the barrels of a number of weapons sticking out.

The leader handed a number of documents to the guards that confronted them, giving a maniacal laugh that chilled Yoshihiro to the bone. The laugh even seemed to unnerve the man's teammates. After their identity was verified, the group walked over to where Jonas and his subordinate stood waiting for them.

The leader smiled, his teeth honed to sharpened points. To Jonas he said, "Eyeshield 21 at your service."

While the first part was obvious, given that they all wore eyeshields to mask their identities, the latter part needed to be addressed. "Why '21'?" Jonas asked.

"We hope to have that many members before the season is over."

"Aren't there normally twenty-two players on a team?"

"We'll have one guy playing both sides of the field," the leader explained.

"I see," Jonas said.

"But there's only four of you now," Yoshihiro pointed out.

"Five," said a quiet voice from right next to him.

Yoshihiro nearly jumped out of his skin. Right beside him, as though he had been there before the bus arrived, was a fifth uniformed man. "I… didn't see you. Sorry."

"No one ever does," he said sadly.

The leader laughed again. "I'll introduce us. I am Crimson Commando: quarterback and strategist on the team."

"And your power?" Jonas asked.

"I perforate things with these." Crimson Commando pulled out a pair of machine guns from the bag and began firing them in the air, causing all the guards to duck for cover as well as pull out their own firearms.

"Good power," Jonas agreed. More than one potential problem to Roxxon had been ended up conveniently 'perforated'. Sometimes simple solutions were the most appropriate for complicated problems.

"The rest of my team ain't too bad either, but they need a hell of a lot more practice before we become the best superhero team on the planet. This guy here." He walked over to the huge man. "Is Stonewall. He has super strength, extra tough skin, and is immovable once he plants himself. An offensive lineman if ever there was one."

"Hello," Stonewall said in a very high, friendly voice.

Crimson Commando went to the small guy with the big hands and bare feet. "This is Monkey Boy."

"It's Gibbon! Not Monkey Boy! Gibbon! Gibbon!" The little man began dancing, resembling nothing so much as an irate monkey.

Yoshihiro couldn't say 'Gibbon' was all that much of an improvement over 'Monkey Boy,' but chose to remain silent.

"He's agile and has a good set of hands. Think of him as the wide receiver on the team," Crimson Commando said, then went to the other small member. "And this is the final member of our group: Super Sabre. He's super fast. Foes are literally defeated before they know it when he's around."

Yoshihiro nodded at the group. "That's an impressive team you have assem—"

"You forgot about me," a voice said next to him.

Again Yoshihiro nearly jumped out of his skin, despite the fact the same thing had happened just moments before. "I thought you left!"

Crimson Commando looked at the man in confusion. Then he said, "Oh, right. That's Mr. Anonymous. He's so plain, he tends to blend in to the background. Don't feel bad. I forget he's on the team most of the time, too."

"Wait, there're five of us?" Gibbon asked.

Mr. Anonymous' sigh was so passive, no one knew he had made it.

Jonas nodded. "Now that the introductions are out of the way, here's your mission."

"Game plan," Crimson Commando corrected.

"Game plan," Jonas said. He pointed to the vault as it was loaded on an armored car. "You are to follow that vehicle and protect the contents with your lives."

Crimson Commando shook his head. "Sorry, coach, I'm calling my own play. We're going to kick the asses of those guys first." He pointed up in the air.

Everyone looked up to see a large saucer, the front resembling a snake's head, heading silently toward the group at a high rate of speed.

"How did they find us?" Jonas shouted.

"What difference does it make? If you weren't worried about being found, you would never have hired us," Crimson Commando countered.

"I guess." Although heads would roll for this security leak.

Crimson Commando continued. "Besides, finding us isn't what's important."

"What is important?" Yoshihiro asked.

"Our reaction to it." Crimson Commando unlimbered what appeared to be a bazooka from his pack. He aimed it from his hip, targeting the rapidly approaching craft, then pulled the trigger. The explosive projectile made a whooshing sound as it shot through the air, striking the saucer directly in the serpent design. The craft came to a dead stop in midair as the explosion from the impact blinded everyone momentarily. When the people on the ground was able to look again, they saw that while the front was now mutilated, the craft could still fly, only a slight wobble in its flight.

Crimson Commando lowered his weapon. "Sturdy craft, and high tech. That armor piercing shell should have gone clean through it."

The saucer extended struts and landed some twenty meters away. Jonas and Yoshihiro took cover with the security forces, allowing their heroic hirelings to earn their pay by acting as shock troops for whatever foes were about to emerge from the ship.

A landing ramp unfolded from the saucer, touching the ground. A large hatch opened and a quartet of brightly-garbed people exited the craft. The first thing everyone noted was that each of the newcomers seemed to have some kind of snake motif. Two of them were women and two were men.

The first woman was dressed in a tight pink and orange body suit, showing off a trim athletic form. Two small metal projections were located on the back of her hands. A second woman was dressed in a tight yellow outfit with scales designed into it. She wore a yellow visor that covered her eyes, and wielded a pair of metal whips that moved as though alive.

One of the men wore a purple and blue body suit with a headpiece whose top flared out and flattened. The headpiece bore two circles that were obviously supposed to represent eyes on the side, though his true eyes were visible from under the headpiece.

The final member of the quartet was by far the most bizarre. While his upper torso was decidedly human, his lower half was serpentine, stretching back three meters before ending in a tail. He wore a green suit with scales on every surface area other than his head, which remained bare of anything, even hair. A pair of blades was attached to the back of his hands.

"You bastards nearly killed us," the woman in orange and pink said.

Crimson Commando snorted. "Quit whining. If you can't take a little rocket to the nose of your vehicle, you don't have the right to call yourselves super-villains."

"He does have a point," the woman with the whips said.

Crimson Commando hefted yet another gun into his hands. "Since you survived the crash, you're worthy enough to fight the Eyeshield 21. What are your names, so we can make you into early members of our rogue's gallery?"

The woman in orange and pink spoke. "I'm Fer De Lance. A snake with very long fangs." She crossed her arms in front of her chest in an 'X'. Long blades shot out from the metal projections on the backs of her hands.

The woman in yellow spoke. "I'm Coachwhip, who strikes so fast you'll be dead before you know it." She cracked the metal whips in front of her.

"I know who you're fighting," Crimson Commando said. He looked to the two men. "You with the corny snake thing on your head. What's your name?"

The man bristled. "I ain't a costume designer, you know. I just whipped this up when my mutant powers came out. Anyway, I'm Rock Python. Skin harder than rock, and I'm pretty strong."

The one with the serpentine lower half spoke. "And I am Bushmaster. My abilities are… self-explanatory." His lower half lashed back and forth.

Crimson Commando shrugged. "I just got finishing introducing my team, so I don't feel up to going through it a second time. So why don't we cut to the chase and beat the crap out of one another?"

"Kill them!" Fer De Lance cried out. The snake oriented villains scattered, going for separate targets.

Fer De Lance raced right for Stonewall. The big man remained completely motionless. The villainess shot a cruel smile and gave a shrill battle cry as she brought her blades back, then drove them straight for Stonewall's heart.

They bounced off his skin, completely ineffective.

Fer De Lance was caught off guard by the uselessness of her weapons. Stonewall responded with a loud "Furuba!" and swatted her away with an open palm strike. She went sailing away, body limp as it landed with a thud on the packed earth.

Bushmaster slid toward the small guy with the big hands, slithering across the ground like his namesake. It would be but a moment's work to finish off the goofy-looking kid before attacking the big guy. While Fer De Lance's attack might have been ineffective, he'd see what effect wrapping his bionic snake tail would have on the big man.

Bushmaster lashed out with the blades on the backs of his hands (silently noting either he or Fer De Lance ought to switch the location of the weapons, since they were nearly identical.) Much to Bushmaster's amazement, the small youth leapt into the air with an inhuman agility. All he saw was a blur as two oversized feet planted themselves squarely in his face. Powerful leg muscles drove the appendages into Bushmaster's skull, rattling his brain enough to cause unconsciousness. The last thing that went though his mind was that the kid really needed to wash his feet: they smelled awful.

Coachwhip ran toward the other little man, whips at the ready. He didn't look like much, not even worth flaying the skin from his bones. To her surprise, he simply stood there, letting her draw within striking distance. That would be his mistake. Even if he had some degree of invulnerability, it wouldn't do him any good. The tips of her whips were adamantium steel, and with the velocity she could create, she could drive them through just about anything. She smiled grimly and aimed right at him….

…And then he was gone.

Coachwhip was only vaguely aware of a blur that snared her whips in mid-air. Something red seemed to pass by her vision. And then she felt herself trip as her legs seemed to have become one giant appendage. She tried to break her fall, but her arms were pinned to her sides. She gave a brief cry as she fell face first to the ground.

Super Sabre stood confidently over his fallen foe. "That takes care of you."

Coachwhip began writhing on the ground. "Oh god. I can't believe you tied me up in my own whips."

"They aren't too tight, are they?" Super Sabre asked, concern in his voice.

Her writhing increased . "No, but I can't move a muscle, and it's really turning me on."

"What?" Super Sabre asked, his jaw dropping.

Coachwhip began breathing hard, as though she had just raced in a marathon. "Bondage is so erotic. Why don't you put me over your knee and spank me for being a bad girl?"

Super Sabre began to back away in fear. "No way!"

"Do a good enough job and I might reform," Coachwhip offered.

"I'm not that sort of guy."

Coachwhip tried wiggling toward him. "Whip my ass! You know you want to!"

Super Sabre ran away from her in terror.

The last member of the quartet, Rock Python walked slowly over to his foe. There had been no doubt in his mind who he would pound into pulp. Anyone stupid enough to insult a super-villain's costume to his face deserved to die. It wasn't like there were any seminars on super villains and style or something.

Crimson Commando aimed his gun at Rock Python and shot him in the legs. The villain barely paused. Crimson Commando fired several more shots at various non-lethal areas of Rock Python's body, all to no effect. He even resorted to shooting him in the head, which barely made him flinch.

"That won't work," Rock Python said, making a great production of cracking his knuckles. "Even armor piercers won't do more than leave a bruise. And if you do that, I might break more than just your face."

Crimson Commando tossed the weapon aside and pulled out a small boxlike device. He aimed it at the villain, who was no more than ten feet away. "Tell me something."

"What?"

Crimson Commando pushed a button. Two darts with suction tips shot from the box and adhered themselves to Rock Python. A pair of wires led from the dart to the box. "Your skin can still conduct electricity, right?"

Rock Python went for the darts. His fingers had just brushed against one when the box fired a huge amount of voltage through the wires and into the villain. Rock Python fell over, smoldering and clearly unconscious.

"Thought so," Crimson Commando said, resetting the weapon.

"That was actually easy," Gibbon said.

"Maybe superheroing won't get us killed after all," Super Sabre said in relief.

"Or it could be the day is merely young."

All eyes turned toward the origin of the voice: the serpent saucer. Standing at the base of the ramp --having walked out while everyone was caught up in battle-- were a dozen people, also dressed in snake themed costumes. All of them exuded an air of danger.

"This doesn't look so good," Gibbon said to no one in particular.

One of the people moved forward. He wore a full body costume and mask so that no portion of his skin showed. Like the others it was reptilian, completely brown with a long orange cape that billowed about him as though it had a life of its own. He had a belt with a holstered pistol of unknown design in it.

The villain clapped. "Bravo. Nice work. I sincerely thought those four would do better with their audition."

"Audition? What is this? Tryouts for 'Super-villain Idol'?" Crimson Commando snapped.

"Somewhat. The four people you fought were trying out for a position in the Serpent Society. That's us, by the way." He indicated the large group before him.

Super Sabre looked the group over. "There're an awful lot of you."

Sidewinder shrugged. "To be honest, we don't have any true powerhouses on the team. I guess anyone of the Hulk's or Tomazooma's stature doesn't want to go with a snake motif. Rhinoceroses or Buffalos seem to be more in their line. But what we might lack in strength, we make up for in versatility and numbers."

"And you're the leader?" Crimson Commando asked.

"Sidewinder, at your service." He bowed.

"Thought so." He turned to Super Sabre. "Blitz Package 8."

Super Sabre nodded. That was one of their basic plays: Have the fast guy take out the bad guys' leadership elements and throw the rank and file into chaos. At least that was the plan.

Super Sabre ran at full speed toward Sidewinder. The world seemed to be in slow motion as everyone else stood immobile. A dozen fists to the head delivered in one second should knock him out. He didn't seem to be the type who had super durability or uncanny reflexes. After that he'd go after anyone that seemed to be toting a weapon.

Super Sabre had cleared half the distance between him and Sidewinder when something caught his eye. It was the woman standing next to Sidewinder. Like him, she wore a full body suit, though a swath of green hair poked out the top of her outfit. Her outfit was skin tight and unusually plain, a black body suit that showed a slender form underneath. Her boots were slightly large, and for some reason she wore kneepads. She was the least snake-like of the group.

It was then she did the impossible: she moved. No, she didn't just move, she moved at normal speed. Super Sabre had been so focused on Sidewinder he had no time to react as the girl ran forward, arm outstretched. He barely had enough time to roll with the clothesline as she nearly decapitated him from the force of their opposing velocities.

Super Sabre's unconscious body skidded across the ground at a speed in excess of one hundred kilometer an hour. He kicked up a dust cloud that stretched for a full kilometer before friction and inertia forced him to stop.

The remaining members of Eyeshield 21 looked on in stunned silence.

The girl in black moved slow enough to become visible again, wrapping an arm around Sidewinder's waist in a very intimate manner.

Sidewinder said, "This is Black Racer. She moves fast in every way. She seduced me within a week of meeting her."

"What can I say? I'm talented," she purred.

"I'll let the others introduce themselves as they soundly thrash you," Sidewinder said, openly taking it easy in Black Racer's arms.

The largest man in the group, who was dressed in a green and blue outfit with a much better designed snake cowl than Rock Python, charged toward the equally sizeable Stonewall. As he charged, he bellowed, "The name's Puff Adder, and I'm a lot stronger that that Rock Python geek."

Stonewall merely stood there, bracing himself.

Puff Adder took a deep breath as he ran, seeming to become bigger a moment before he struck Stonewall. He bowled into the hero full force.

And Puff Adder was sent flying backward anyway.

The villain lay on the ground, rubbing his head. "Geez. That guy didn't budge an inch."

A beautiful woman, slender with a dancer's body, moved next to the fallen Puff Adder. She was dressed in a simple white dress that showed a great deal of flesh, and with only a pair of green snakes flowing up the sides. The only other snake thing about her was a snake shaped tiara on her brow.

"I don't think you want to tangle with him, Asp. He's a tough one," Puff Adder warned.

Asp looked Stonewall over. "Tell me, did he seem to be wearing armor?"

"Nah. He seemed more like Anaconda. Naturally tough. Not wearing armor like Death Adder."

"Good." Asp held out her hands and a twisting bolt of yellow energy leapt forth from her palms. It struck Stonewall dead center in his chest.

For a moment nothing happened, then Stonewall's eyes rolled into the back of his head and he hit the ground, unconscious.

Asp smiled at her handiwork. "It doesn't matter how big he is. My venom blasts paralyze the nervous system. If they can hit skin, they can affect my foe."

Puff Adder rose to his feet. "Nice moves, Aspie. How about after this is all over you show me what other moves you have?"

She cradled his chin in her hand. "Don't make me shoot you too, Puff. A high enough dosage will still your heart."

While Stonewall fell to Asp, Crimson Commando was in motion. To Gibbon he yelled, "Run interference!" while he aimed a gun at the still casual Sidewinder.

Gibbon looked at the half dozen super villains heading toward him and Crimson Commando. "Oh, what the hell." He gave a battle cry and leapt for the group. Maybe a suicidal attack would catch them off guard and he would beat them all. He had heart. He was the underdog. He wasn't about to let fear rule him. The good guys always won when those factors came into play.

And then one of the snake men, with a tail with a knob on the end, shook it in Gibbon's direction. The monkey boy found himself struck with a solid wall of vibrations that knocked him out.

"Score one for Rattler," the man with the tail said.

Crimson Commando knew it was over, but was damned if he wouldn't take the cocky snake leader with him. He aimed a gun at Sidewinder, who refused to move. Crimson Commando smiled. He had worked with Super Sabre before. No matter how quick Black Racer was, she wasn't fast enough to prevent Crimson Commando's reflexes from firing first.

He squeezed the trigger. Just as he did so, Sidewinder's cape flowed around him, momentarily blocking him from view. Then the cape impossibly folded in on itself so small that Sidewinder couldn't possibly be in it. Then it disappeared altogether.

Crimson Commando had only a second to wonder what had happened to his adversary when he was struck from behind by a stun blast that rendered him unconscious.

Sidewinder holstered the stun blaster. He turned to see the rest of the serpents that had not taken on the superheroes had obliterated the security forces. Like clockwork. "And that takes care of that."

Black Racer disappeared for a few seconds, then came into view again, "I swept the area. We're secure."

A lead pipe to the back of the head sent her to the ground.

Sidewinder gasped as the fifth member of Eyeshield suddenly… well, he didn't exactly appear from nowhere, as if he had been invisible. Nor had he been moving at super speed and finally slowed down. It was like he had always been there and Sidewinder only happened to notice him because he had hit Black Racer.

"Get him!" Sidewinder shouted.

Mr. Anonymous found himself set upon by over a dozen super villains, and learned the hard way that sometimes anonymity was a blessing.

After beating the hero within an inch of his life, the serpents backed away, though they double-checked the area to make sure no one else was lurking in the background.

Now certain the area was secure, Sidewinder walked over to the vault. A beautiful woman in a skimpy skin tight black outfit, and adorned with a trio of lifelike small snakes wrapped around her body, examined the vault.

She wrapped a knuckle on the side. "Looks like adamantium to me. It's impossible for any of us to crack it."

"So we'll sidestep it, my dear Black Mamba." Sidewinder's cape engulfed him again, folding in on itself until it disappeared from sight. A moment later the process reversed itself, the cape appearing from nowhere, and unwrapping to reveal the man underneath.

"Teleportation. Not much of an offensive power, but unparalleled in obtaining hard to get merchandise." Sidewinder held a peculiar device in his hand. It almost appeared to be a holder for a torch. "Excellent. With the other five pieces we have collected, we need only one more, then our freedom will become a reality. But first, we need to deal with our trainees."

By this time the four petitioners had recovered and approached Sidewinder.

Fer De Lance was the first to speak. "That was a fluke. It wasn't a true test of my abilities. I've killed dozens of people more powerful than that. Give me another--."

"Relax," Sidewinder smoothed. "You all passed."

"But they defeated us," Bushmaster pointed out.

"You were overmatched. Also there was too much of a reliance on weapon users in your grouping rather than the variety of skills needed against superheroes. All of you have abilities that will benefit the Serpent Society. Line up, if you would. Cottonmouth!"

Cottonmouth approached his leader. He was on the slender side, with a gray costume with yellow boots and gloves. The abdomen of his suit had design to make it look like it was a mouth. He wore a headpiece as well, similar to Puff Adder's, but with a chin guard. The top and bottom had faux teeth, making it look like his face was inside a giant mouth.

"The induction ceremony, as we discussed," Sidewinder said.

Cottonmouth nodded, pulling out four communications devises that also served as homing beacons.

He handed one to Bushmaster. "Like the tail," Cottonmouth said.

Bushmaster bowed his head, stoically accepting the card.

Next Cottonmouth walked up to Rock Python. "That guy didn't know what he was talking about. It's a great headpiece."

"Yours is nice too." He accepted the card as well.

Coachwhip was next. Cottonmouth said, "Here you go, and if you ever need tying up, I can show you a good time." He grinned lasciviously.

"Snakes turn me off," she said icily.

Cottonmouth paused, staring at the woman trying to determine if she was serious.

"Just get on with it," Sidewinder urged him before Cottonmouth could even try to argue the point.

He walked up to the last one in line. "And yours."

Fer De Lance accepted the badge.

Cottonmouth then showed his superhuman ability as his jaw literally dropped a foot and a half, showing off a set of razor sharp teeth. He lunged forward, his mouth widening to inhuman dimensions as he engulfed Fer De Lance's entire head. His jaws shut with an audible snap. There was the sound of bone breaking as he drew his head back.

Fer De Lance's headless corpse sprayed blood everywhere as the body fell backward, spasming reflexively.

The three remaining inductees stood paralyzed for a second. Then they reacted, backing away from Cottonmouth, weapons at the ready.

"Oh my god!" Bushmaster said.

"What the hell is going on?" Rock Python shouted.

Coachwhip held her whips apart, one looking like it might wrap around Cottonmouth, while the other was aimed in Sidewinder's direction. "I thought you said we were on the team!"

"You are," Sidewinder said as the sounds of bone continuing to break came from Cottonmouth's now impossibly swollen cheeks, though they were becoming smaller by the second. "Unfortunately for Fer De Lance, she was already on another team and was only pretending to be on ours. She was a Hydra double agent. I am very much an 'honor among thieves' sort of leader, which is why I bargained for our official release from our current employer rather than just running off, despite her giving many of us our abilities. Like Cottonmouth's cybernetic cranial and digestive tract reconstruction."

Cottonmouth nodding in acknowledgement, crunching away.

"Excuse me for one second," Asp said, then ran behind a nearby rock so she could vomit in privacy.

Sidewinder looked toward the group. "If anyone else feels they can't handle their turncoat nature, feel free to leave now. There won't be any repercussions."

One of the men dressed in a copper colored snake outfit, whose name was, appropriately enough, Copperhead, approached Sidewinder. He handed over his card, then walked off.

When no one else stepped forward, Sidewinder said, "Excellent. We will now return to our employer so she can fix our Serpent Saucer. We have but one more piece to track down, then we'll be freelancers and our own bosses. No more goddamn requests for vacations, time card punching, or filling out forms in triplicate. And to add frosting to the cake, I got us a top notch severance package to give us a start. I have my eye on this cozy little hideaway in Hawaii for our base of operations. No dark dank fortresses in the middle of nowhere for us. It'll be fun in the sun and ocean waves lapping at our feet…"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Avenging Act II, Chapter 9 The Lesson of the Serpents (Strength in Numbers) 


	23. Act II Chap10 Serpents Part B

Avenging Act II, Chapter 9 The Lesson of the Serpents (Strength in Numbers)

Any and all C+C appreciated. You can contact me at: the previous chapters and my other works are stored at:

Larry F's new address at:  
http/ newer works at Mediaminer disclaimer: I don't own any of the Marvel characters or other characters from the numerous animes which are within.

Here's a great reference guide for many character and objects in the Marvel Universe. Comic geeks like me, including people that have worked for Marvel, have put it together. Heck, they refer to stuff even I didn't know about. (Like how it was Warhawk that had killed Atom Smasher I from the brief Black Goliath run. Hey, it was a fun five issues series.  
http/ was a call Kodachi Kunou didn't expect. Her late father's personal line, which was never used since everyone knew he had been declared dead (and that Kodachi had her own personal line), suddenly emitted a song with a Hawaiian flavor to it. She made a mental note to have the tune purged from the system.

Whoever was calling had been lucky in her being in her father's old office when it rang. Kodachi picked up the phone and entered the ten digit code to accept the call. Instantly a viewscreen popped up from the desk and activated. It showed a somewhat heavyset gaijin dressed in an expensive suit. Kodachi recognized him instantly. Hugh Jones was synonymous with Roxxon the company he founded, and remained its majority shareholder.

"Yes, Mr. Jones?" Kodachi asked in flawless English.

"Greetings, Miss Kunou," the man answered in equally flawless Japanese. "Congratulations on achieving control of your father's empire."

"Thank you. I've noticed Roxxon is doing equally well on the open market." The proper greetings had been exchanged. The need for etiquette had been met. Kodachi wanted to cut to the chase. "If I may be so bold, how is it one of my late father's competitors is calling me on his personal line?"

Jones smiled. While it didn't touch his eyes, neither was it hostile. "Yes, well, you see, your father and I had something of an unusual friendship. Roxxon has always been geared toward energy production while Kunou Industries has focused on munitions and pineapples."

"We're a bit more diverse than that, and we're liquidating our pineapple holdings." It was a repulsive fruit her father had been far too obsessed over. The money from the sales was going to obtain a new pharmaceutical company that had caught Kodachi's eye. While her father had possessed a head for business, his mania with fruit and his disdain for pharmaceuticals were definite blind spots in his psyche. He had been far too eccentric for his own good at times. Luckily Kodachi was beyond such things. She was perfectly normal, and had a good outlet for any stress that bothered her. Repulsor beams to a super-villain's head was very therapeutic.

Not that she would share such inside information regarding the change in KI's mission profile with Jones. "Now, what were you saying about your relationship with my father?"

"Since we had few common interests, we would occasionally share information with one another, assuming it wouldn't lead to cross purposes, of course."

"Of course," Kodachi said. "Insider information?"

"No. More like a gentlemen's agreement," Jones corrected. "In any event, I thought we might engage in an exchange of favors that would benefit us mutually."

"What sort of favors?" Kodachi asked, unwilling to agree to anything before the cards were on the table.

"As a show of good faith, I shall lead off," Jones said. "A few months ago a company called the Brand Corporation was bought out from under us through a shell company. Let's just say the tactics used to beat us were underhanded by even the lowest of standards."

Oh great. A long winded story. Kodachi tired of this beating around the bush. "And this concerns me how?"

Jones took no offense, at least outwardly. "Brand was making incredible inroads in the creations of super-powered beings. As part of the negotiations, we were shown some of their plans, including the creation of a unit of SPBs. Recently a group of super-villains appeared, a number of them with abilities identical to those being developed by Brand. They have been going by the name 'The Serpent Society'. If you were to send your own team of SPBs to defeat them, I'm certain you could handle these snakes."

Kodachi steepled her fingers before her as she stared at the screen. "First, while I am financing the Avengers, they are most certainly not my employees. Only my personal bodyguard, Iron Rose, is. The Avengers operate at their own discretion. Secondly, why are you so concerned about these super-villains? Surely this isn't revenge over being outmaneuvered in your business dealings?"

Jones was silent for a moment, then said, "No, it's more personal than that. Roxxon was attempting to gather pieces of an item that might have served as an alternative energy source. The Serpent Society stole our pieces from us, as well those that had been gathered by others. The only piece left is in our possession, which means they'll be coming after it. I can't say I care for the idea of a group of highly dangerous super-villains getting their hands on this potential energy source."

Now that made sense. And it was something she could agree to. The world did not need another Mandarin. "What would you want the Avengers to do?"

"We have a surefire method of preventing them from ever getting the final piece, but we need time to relocate it to the proper facility. We'd like the Avengers to guard the piece until it can be dealt with. If you can arrange this for me, I would be more than happy to share some information that concerns KI."

That piqued her interest further. "Go on."

Jones smiled, delighted at her interest. "I have become aware that one of your major stockholders is about to be pressured into selling her stock. I can give you the name so you get a chance to buy it first. So you see, the Avengers will have a chance to take down a group of dangerous super-villains and you'll be protecting your company from a possible hostile takeover."

Kodachi had to admit, it was a tempting offer, one she couldn't refuse for both reasons Jones had stated. Super-villains needed to be incarcerated and she needed to protect her company, especially since someone had attempted to kill her, as well as them probably killing both her brother and father. "I see. Very well. I'll have Iron Rose broach the subject. If the Avengers are agreeable, I'll inform you."

"Excellent," Jones said. "Due to the urgency of the matter, the piece is being moved later today. I only told you this at the last minute due to our moving ahead of schedule. I'll give you the time and location to meet with the convoy that will be taking it to the secure facility. It's been a pleasure doing business with you."

"It has been interesting," Kodachi conceded, then cut the transmission. So, her father's backroom dealings went beyond what she had thought. She didn't trust Roxxon; there had been far too many rumors concerning the way they did business, and she doubted their attempt to acquire Brand's SPBs had been for the benefit of mankind. Still, it seemed as though there was an even greater threat than Roxxon involved in this, and Kodachi was one who preferred dealing with the devil she knew to the one she didn't.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Iron Rose peered through the eye slits of her visor at the assemblage of heroes. For a change, everyone had shown up (except the part-time trollop Bucky), even the ever wandering Hulk was sitting at the table, fixated on Thor. Of course, he had simply followed the beeping from the homing beacon in his bandanna, rather than having any desire to help out. But upon seeing Thor, he had become like a giant puppy, eager to follow her around.

At the moment all was peaceful, but there was no telling how long that might last with such diverse personalities. All too often one wrong word would send the team into a heated debate.

Iron Rose activated her voice amplifier, increasing it three times so that she might be heard over the din. "Avengers, I have called this meeting for a purpose."

"Is Tin Can Girl serving beans?" Hulk asked.

"We can arrange that before we leave," Iron Rose told him, informing Sasuke to prepare the Hulk's usual twenty pound helping of beans 'to go'. In some ways, the Hulk was quite easy to deal with compared to the others. Unless he lost his temper, than he was by far the worst of the lot. If only everyone could be as composed as her Captain Japan, who never made problems and was the ideal team player in every way.

Iron Rose started to become lost in a fantasy of the Captain sweeping her off her feet, when she was outside of her armor, of course. She didn't have a lot, well, any contact with the opposite gender, and he was an ideal one to start out with. Those huge muscles, that proud profile, that cute butt…

"Ahem." Hawkeye cleared her throat in an openly irritated manner.

"I'm getting to the point," Iron Rose said testily. "I have come upon information indicating a super-villain group known as the Serpent Society will attack a Roxxon convoy. I suggest we travel with it so that we might ambush these villains and bring them to justice. I'd like a vote on the matter to see if we shall stop these foul villains from committing their acts of perfidy."

Giant Man, currently at his normal height, said, "I don't think we should do thi—"

Wasp cut him off. "Of course we have to stop these mean and nasty super-villains and kick their behinds. Isn't that right, Giant Man?"

Giant Man took one look into his diminutive partner's eyes. No, he didn't want to fight them. He wanted to go home and look over some updates he had to turn in to keep his medical license. But there was no way he would allow Kasumi to walk into the jaws of danger. "Yes."

Their hands both went up.

Hulk said. "Tin Can Girl wants us to smash snakes?"

"Yes."

"Hulk does not like snakes. Hulk will help smash snakes." He raised his hand.

Thor's hand followed. "We should smite these foul miscreants."

Daredevil remained sitting with his hands crossed. "No way. I'm not some stooge for a big oil conglomerate like Roxxon."

Hawkeye followed suit. "I'm inclined to agree with Daredevil. Roxxon has been involved in some pretty shady deals. Maybe they're doing something illegal too. I mean, they could go to the authorities and have them help."

Wasp flew up to Hawkeye's face, tiny fists planted firmly on tiny hips. "Why don't we just call the authorities whenever a super-villain shows up?"

"It's not the same thing," Hawkeye said.

"I'm abstaining," Captain Japan said, interrupting the upcoming argument.

All eyes turned toward him.

"Why?" Iron Rose asked.

As though each word had to be pulled from his mouth, Captain Japan said, "I'm… retiring."

The Avengers rose to their feet almost as a whole, except the Hulk, who stared at everyone. He didn't see why he should stand, so he remained where he was.

"Thou cannot quit," Thor said, getting right up into Captain Japan's face.

Hawkeye tried muscling the goddess out of the way. Failing to move her an inch, she settled for squishing herself between the Asgardian and Iron Rose. "I agree."

Daredevil remained sitting. "Let him go. We don't need him."

Iron Rose turned in fury upon him. "You sightless moron. We need the Captain more than we need you."

Now Daredevil shot to his feet in confrontation with Iron Rose and the two squared off.

The Hulk finally rose to his feet, having caught the gist of the conversation. "Shield Man reminds Hulk of Hulk's enemy. Maybe Hulk should smash Shield Man before he leaves."

Captain Japan put his hands to his lips and gave a sharp whistle, catching everyone's attention once again. "Guys! It's a family emergency, kind of. A problem with my mother."

"Can't you just take a leave of absence? It'll be paid for," Iron Rose assured him.

Captain Japan shook his head. "Nah. The problem ain't going to go away. I gotta quit. Probably retire altogether. And Bucky will be coming with me."

"We can get by without her," Hawkeye assured him.

"Verily."

"I concur," came from Iron Rose.

"Well don't get all worked up over that," Captain Japan said dryly. "Anyway, I'm resigning effective immediately." He turned and walked out without looking back.

The others stared at his retreating form. Iron Rose recovered from the shock first. "We will discuss the matter of the captain's resignation later."

"I shall bring him back," Thor said.

"This is a voluntary group," Daredevil pointed out.

"Then I shall voluntarily bring him back."

Daredevil gave up. Arguing with goddesses just wasn't worth the hassle.

Iron Rose continued. "At the moment, it's five to two in favor of stopping the Serpent Society. We'll defeat these villains, and if we catch wind of any Roxxon wrongdoings, we'll stop them, too."

That seemed to placate the still stunned Hawkeye, though Daredevil remained firm in his disapproval.

Course decided, Iron Rose activated a holographic map that had already been programmed with the necessary information. "The target is being moved today, so we'll have to set off immediately. Here's the battle plan I recommend…"

Xxxxxxxx

An hour later the Avengers landed in a makeshift landing strip near an old, dormant volcano. A number of vehicles formed a ring around a large container. As the quinjet set down and the Avengers got off, a man in a business suit, completely inappropriate for the terrain, approached them.

Iron Rose took the lead. Since she had called the group together, and had superior knowledge of corporate diplomacy, she had been placed in charge of the mission.

The man bowed deeply. "Greetings, I'm Yoshihiro Kimura, the head of this operation. Might I say it's an honor to meet you. I'm glad, no, relieved you're here to help. Even with our security detail, we're no match for real SPBs."

"It's an honor to meet you as well—" Iron rose said, then was interrupted as one of the security personnel, who had a set of binoculars scanning the sky, suddenly shouted, "It's them again! All personnel take cover!" And he promptly did so.

All eyes looked upward to the serpent shaped saucer flying toward the convoy low and to the ground. The saucer was already coming to a stop before the man had finished seeking cover.

"I like it when they don't make us wait," Wasp said eagerly as a ramp appeared from the ship and a large number of snake motif villains stepped down from the saucer.

Iron Rose turned to Thor and the Hulk. "I want you two to scatter them."

"Wait!" Giant Man said. "Let's try to talk to them."

"Why?" Wasp said, openly perturbed.

"Yes, why?" Iron Rose asked.

"So we can have a peaceful resolution for a change. Because not everything in the world needs to be resolved with violence. Maybe we can defuse the situation if we understand why they're doing this. They might have very legitimate reasons."

"I'm against it because there are a whole lot more of them than us, and we're giving them a chance to formulate a defense." Hawkeye fingered the feathered shafts sticking out of her quiver nervously.

Seeing any element of surprise had been lost in the discussion, Iron Rose said. "Very well. We'll give diplomacy a chance, though I'm not very hopeful."

Hawkeye said, "I'm hopeful, because I don't like the three to one odds we're facing."

Giant Man approached the group of snakes, who were fanning out away from the saucer. As he did so, Daredevil moved next to Hawkeye and said softly, "I'm with you. This isn't going to work. I can tell by the heartbeat of the one with hair sticking out of the top of her outfit that she's a speedster."

"The one all in black?" Hawkeye asked.

Daredevil simply went silent.

Hawkeye could sense the irritation radiating from him. "Oh, right. The color thing." She turned red in embarrassment. "The one with kneepads?"

"Yes, that one. If it hits the fan, she'll be the first one on us. We'll use Plan 10."

"Right." One of the advantages of having faced a speedster before, and gotten trounced by him on more than one occasion, was that they had developed tactics to counter someone with similar abilities. Hawkeye moved the shaft that Plan 10 called for away from the others and waited for the situation to break down. Really, talking with super villains. If they could be reasoned with, they wouldn't be super-villains. Especially snake-oriented one. Only major weirdoes went around in scales.

Giant Man decided to remain at his normal height as a show of faith to the oddly garbed newcomers. None of these people were very well, given their obvious snake fetishes. After the situation was peacefully resolved, he'd recommend a therapist that specialized in people with fetish problems to them.

Some of them tensed up, as though to strike. Giant Man was quick to locate the one that seemed to be the leader, dressed in a brown full snake bodysuit, and shout to him, "Wait. Before we engage in mindless violence which will only result in needless injury, let's try and resolve this peacefully."

"What an unexpected surprise." Sidewinder held up his hand, indicating his forces should remain at attention, though his eyes never left Giant Man. "Very well, what do you have to say?"

"Why are you doing this?" It was a basic question which was the key to settling many issues.

Sidewinder considered that. "If you must know, part of it is money and the other part has to do with being given independence from the people that gave most of us our abilities."

Yes! Giant Man knew it. There was a reasonable explanation for their actions; one that could be resolved with a little effort. "That's easy. I'm sure Roxxon will pay you not to attack them, and we'll help free you from your master's control. There's no need to fight after all."

Sidewinder shook his head. "You misunderstand. We're all volunteers that are contractually obligated to do this. We're far too honorable to break our word. Now let me turn the tables and ask, why are you Avengers here? Is Kodachi Kunou in the habit of loaning out her forces to corrupt oil conglomerates?"

"Hey! I'm here under protest!" Daredevil shouted, his heightened hearing able to listen in as though he were standing next to the pair.

Iron Rose was also perturbed and sounded angry enough to blast Sidewinder out of hand. "And the Avengers have complete autonomy in making their own decisions. The stipend they receive is in recognition of the difficulty of their work. Only I am a salaried employee of Kunou Industries."

"Oh, of course you are." Sarcasm dripped from Sidewinder like venom. "Why don't you just move along. I see you're one person short, and in case you didn't notice, we outnumber you considerably."

"I noticed," Hawkeye said.

"Enough talk," came the Wasp's voice from the center of a number of the villains. Bushmaster was suddenly struck by a double 'sting' to the face, instantly rendering him unconscious.

"So much for dialogue," Iron Rose said as the first shot opened the floodgates

Everything happened at once. Before Wasp could follow up on her attack Rattler raised his tail up and sent a solid wave of vibratory force through the air. It was so wide and so hard Wasp didn't stand a chance as she was swatted from the air and hit the ground.

Seeing the woman he loved struck down, Giant Man cried out and shot up to a height of twenty feet. Rock Python, who had been standing next to Sidewinder, ran up to his large feet and confronted him.

"Out of the way!" Giant Man shouted, seeing only red. He kicked Rock Python, knocking the villain prone. Then Giant Man cried out in pain and held his foot.

Rock Python rose to his feet, unhurt. "Tough luck, Big Man. Name's Rock Python, and I got rock hard skin. A big pussy like you can't begin to hope to hurt me."

Giant Man stopped hopping around and grabbed Rock Python. Due to his large hand, he was able to pin his opponent's hands to his sides.

Rock Python laughed. "Stupid. You ain't the Hulk or Thor. You aren't strong enough to squeeze me and cause me any pain."

"Who said I'm going to squeeze you?" And with that Giant Man drew back, then threw Rock Python like he was a man-sized football. The villain went sailing off in the distance.

As Giant Man took a moment to estimate how long it would take the villain to run back, a stabbing pain came from his back. He cried out in agony and tried to remove the source, which was large, heavy, and seemed to be hanging on to his back. He backed up, ramming whatever it was against the serpent saucer itself. The stabbing sensation stopped increasing, but there was a sharp pain from an obvious wound.

Giant Man turned around and saw Cottonmouth picking himself up. His cheeks were bulging as he chewed on something. Giant Man felt behind him for the source of the pain and realized he was bleeding from a sizeable chunk of flesh that was now missing from his back.

"You, you bit me," he said in disgust.

"Injected some venom into you through my fangs, too, though you're so big, I doubt if it will bother you," Cottonmouth could barely get out through his overstuffed cheeks.

Giant Man suddenly felt like throwing up. Before he could do anything, one of the Asp's venom blasts struck him in the face. While it didn't knock him out, due to his huge size, he felt very woozy. Many of the muscles in his face becoming unmoving, as well as his mind being affected. His thoughts slowed as he swayed around, as though drunk.

At the same time Wasp was getting swatted, Daredevil initiated Plan 10, shouting at Black Racer, "Hey, you ugly hag. If you're going to wear skin-tight clothing, do it in something that doesn't make your ass look fat!"

"Die!" Black Racer shrieked. Thought was motion as she ran toward Daredevil.

She was almost too fast. Luckily Hawkeye had fired her arrow before Daredevil had finished speaking. Also to their advantage, Black Racer was had developed tunnel vision only for the red-garbed hero, who was pulling a batch of tanglewire from his robes.

The grease arrow splattered right in front of Black Racer. She had no time to react, hitting the patch and wiping out.

As she slid past Daredevil, she hit the bail of tanglewire he had thrown in front of her. While it lacked barbs, it was wiry and strong enough that as Black Racer rolled around in it, she ended up wrapped in a small cocoon of metal.

"You'll pay for that!" Sidewinder shouted, seeing his lady love incapacitated so brutally.

With the flick of the wrist, a billy club appeared in Daredevil's hand. He threw the metal truncheon at Sidewinder, but before it covered half the distance, Sidewinder's cape had engulfed him. By the time it came within ten feet of where he had been, the villain had teleported out of the line of fire.

The cape unfolded, allowing Sidewinder to see he had teleported directly behind Daredevil, as he had planned. He brought out his stun pistol from the holster at his hip and took aim at the hero's back.

Two more billy clubs appeared in Daredevil's hands from the sleeves of his robes. Without looking behind him, he threw them over his shoulders. Both projectiles were on target, one hitting Sidewinder in the wrist and making him drop the pistol, while the second struck him in the head, rendering him unconscious.

Before Daredevil could react a third opponent came at him. Coachwhip's weapons danced in the air, as though alive. "All the tricks in the world aren't going to save you from someone as talented as me.

"I'm sure," Daredevil threw a dozen weighted chains at Coachwhip. She proved as good as her word, effortlessly batting aside all of the weapons. She then hurled a whip at him.

He pulled out a metal bat and let the whip coil around it. Just as he was about to rip the weapon out of Coachwhip's hands, a surge of electricity shot through it. Daredevil hit the ground, twitching in agony.

Coachwhip smiled. "The problem with being familiar with many weapons is you can't beat someone who's specialized in one. Especially when it has a hidden surprise."

"I couldn't agree with you more." Hawkeye shot an arrow at Coachwhip's back. However, halfway there her shaft was intercepted by an oversized diamond-shaped projectile.

A second one headed toward Hawkeye's head. She shot that one of mid-air with a normal arrow, triggering an explosion.

She turned to see the thrower. It was a woman dressed in a pink and black skin-tight bodysuit, as unsnake-like as Black Racer's outfit. A large number of 'throwing diamonds' were attached by bands around her waist, legs, arms, and even neck.

"So you use trick diamonds… Diamondback?" she guessed.

"Yes. Trick arrows?"

"Yes."

Diamondback shouted, "Hey, guys, the archer's mine! Don't interfere!"

"Same goes for me!" Hawkeye shouted at her comrades, suddenly feeling very excited.

Diamondback held out a number of diamonds. "Let's dance." And threw them.

Hawkeye answered with a storm of arrows.

Thor found herself confronted by Black Mamba. Already irritated at Captain Japan's resignation, she was barely able to concentrate on what was obviously an inferior foe. "Harlot, thou prances about in nearly as little clothing as a former comrade of mine."

"But my body's better, right?" Black Mamba asked, displaying it in a very suggestive way.

Thor considered that. "Not quite as buxom, methinks, but not bad at…" Thor suddenly realized where her thoughts had been taking her. "I have no interest in thine perversions. I shall agh!"

Thor cried out as two sets of claws racked across her back, biting deep enough to leave trails of blood behind. It was most remarkable, considering her Asgardian skin was bulletproof. Reflexively she lashed out at the one who had dared to stab her in the back while she was distracted.

Death Adder, dressed in green and purple armor with a large fin on the top, was probably they most deadly of the Serpent Society, outside of Cottonmouth. His primary ability was his long fingers which had osmium tipped metal 'nails', each coated with a healthy quantity of poison. He also possessed a prehensile tail tipped with spikes (also coated in poison) and superhuman agility. It was that agility (and body armor) which prevented him from needing a body cast for the next month as Thor's backhand didn't catch him flush. Instead he was only sent sailing away, bouncing off a rock like a racquetball before hitting the ground with only a handful of minor bruises and a dislocated jaw.

Dispatching her foe, Thor turned back to Black Mamba, intent on removing her from the field of battle as well. She wanted to do it fast, as already a burning sensation starting from the scratches was coursing through her body.

However, upon returning her attention to her first foe, Thor saw an oddly shaped black cloud form in front of her. It was about the size of a person, but composed of some unearthly substance that reflected no light. It was like a chunk of living darkness.

"What is this?" Thor asked, gazing into the inky black substance. There was something disturbing about it, almost as though there was something moving beneath the surface.

Black Mamba said, "Think of it as a mirror to the soul. If you've ever loved, you'll see what lies underneath. Look more closely."

A part of Thor knew she should refuse, but she couldn't seem to help herself. There was something there. No, there was someone there.

And then she saw it. How could she have been so blind. It was her. At long last. After an eternity, her.

The black cloud blanketed Thor. She remained motionless, her mind telling her to allow her beloved to embrace her.

The cloud solidified, tightening around the goddess in its embrace.

The Hulk was momentarily confused by what was happening. For one thing, he wasn't sure about how well this 'talking' business was going to turn out. It never seemed to work for him. Then the fighting started, with a bunch of snake people running around. Curiously, none of them bothered the Hulk. He had been content to leave things at that when he saw Hammer Girl being engulfed by a disturbing black mist. That was a no-no. It was time to help out his friend.

He started to head toward her when he felt something slither up his back, then move up to rest on his shoulders. It felt creepy, almost like a snake.

Suddenly an upside down head, one dressed in a cowl that made it look like a cobra with its hood out, appeared before the Hulk.

"What?" was all the Hulk got out as the Cobra used his wrist launcher to fire a trio of capsules right down the Hulk's throat. He then used his inhuman speed to slither off the hulk's shoulders and back to the ground before the green goliath got his hands on him.

The Hulk gagged as he swallowed the capsules. "What did snake man give Hulk? Was it vitamins? Hulk doesn't like vitamins."

Cobra said. "It's a special concoction of mine combining the most potent snake venoms known to man… multiplied. You just ingested enough to kill a herd of elephants."

"Hulk is not a herd of elephants!" he shouted then felt his stomach rumble. "Hulk not feel so good."

"Actually you should feel dead," Cobra said, concerned. While he could probably evade the Hulk with his inhuman speed, he doubted he would get another chance to trick the brute into swallowing more of his poison. He knew he should have gone after Daredevil. There was a guy that cried out 'non-invulnerable hide'.

Suddenly Puff Adder stood next to Cobra. "I'll finish the job!" he declared, running right at the Hulk, who had fallen to his knees and started to retch.

A repulsor blast from the air hit the ground in front of Cobra and Puff Adder. The large man was only knocked off his feet, while Cobra absorbed the brunt of the explosion. Lacking his ally's durability, he was knocked out cold.

Iron Rose shouted, "You'll not a lay a hand on the green goliath." She swept down to finish off Puff Adder.

As she flew low, she suddenly felt a great weight leap onto her back. A pair of arms wrapped themselves around hers, forcing them off to the side. She felt something else wrap themselves around her torso. She looked down to see they were a pair of legs.

Iron Rose tried turning her head around, and saw a huge, bulky, and very ugly, woman attached to her back. The woman's arms and legs had coiled around her like a serpent's, and already the pressure was building on the armor.

The woman said, "The name's Anaconda, honey. And I crush things. I'm gonna squeeze your skinny ass until that tin can becomes your coffin."

"My armor is the height of technology. It cannot be crushed."

"That's what everyone says until their lungs collapse." Anaconda began applying more pressure.

Iron Rose suddenly became very concerned as warning lights flashed on her armor's diagnostics.

Things were not going well for her team.

xxxxxxxxxx

Asp lined up another shot at Giant Man. "Let's see if a second shot to the head can bring you down, Big Boy."

"And then I'll rip out his throat," Cottonmouth said, finally choking down the chunk of meat he had torn from the hero's back.

"Maybe I won't shoot him then," Asp said. Then she realized that if she didn't, she'd probably get stepped on like a garden snake. Still, maybe afterwards she could 'accidentally' shoot Cottonmouth with a fatal blast at close range.

Asp aimed and fired. However, as the yellow beam of energy leapt from her hands, a spinning shield blocked the shot. Unfortunately for Asp, her venom blasts lacked kinetic energy, which meant the shield kept flying on the exact same course it had been hurled on. It struck her solidly, knocking her out. As it bounced off her it struck Cottonmouth in the jaw before arcing back and returning to the thrower, who made what would have been a difficult catch out of thoughtless reflex.

"You're back!" Giant Man exclaimed.

All Captain Japan said was, "Grow to fifty feet."

"I won't be that much stronger than I am now," Giant Man warned. His strength did not increase in direct proportion to his mass. Anything beyond thirty feet and he had to use increasing amounts of strength simply to support himself. Theoretically he could grow larger than his strength could sustain him, possibly to the point of death.

"Size is what you'll need." Captain Japan shouted, "Iron Rose! Fly low enough for Giant Man to grab the girl off your back!"

"With pleasure," Iron Rose gasped, concerned since she had been unable to overpower Anaconda due to leverage, and, given the snake woman's positioning, was also unable to bring any of her weapons to bear. All she could do was fly around and slowly feel her armor buckle.

Iron Rose flew to within reach of Giant Man and showed her back to him.

Giant Man reached for Anaconda, wondering how to best pry her off. It proved unnecessary as the woman's limbs pulled away from Iron Rose and wrapped themselves around Giant Man's hand.

"I'll just crush you instead!" Anaconda shouted, as she tried to exert some pressure. It was then she discovered a flaw in her plan. His hand was so big she couldn't get enough leverage to crush anything.

Giant Man ended her concern by slamming her into the ground.

Captain Japan shouted, "Hawkeye, help out Daredevil now!"

"I'm busy!" Hawkeye barely intercepted an acid and a razor diamond with a pair of arrows. It wasn't looking good, since she was almost out of arrows thanks to her evenly matched opponent.

"Now!" he ordered.

Having faith in the hunk Captain, Hawkeye spun and fired an arrow at Coachwhip, who had wrapped one of her whips around Daredevil's neck and was slowly asphyxiating him.

The stunner arrow struck her in the temple, knocking her out.

"Turning in battle is a fatal mistake!" Diamondback shouted as she threw a trio of diamonds at Hawkeye.

They were intercepted in mid-flight by Captain Japan's shield. One of the diamonds was explosive tipped, and the detonation threw the shield far off course.

Diamondback was about to throw a flame burst diamond at Captain Japan when she froze. She had seen him on television, of course, but it didn't do him justice. The man was a serious hunk. And that profile, even through his mask it was obvious he had bold features.

Then she realized she had made a mistake. Instinctively she leapt out of the way as an explosive arrow detonated in front of her. Luckily, she had enough training to ride out the blast, though as she landed she felt her shoulder dislocate. The fight was over for her. One armed she'd be easy prey for Hawkeye. So instead she threw down two smoke diamonds, camouflaging her as she made an escape. If she could make it to the hills, she could probably elude any pursuit. The terrain was rocky, and there were still a handful of her fellow serpents for the heroes to deal with.

Cottonmouth returned to his feet. While the shield impacting with his jaw had rattled his brain a bit, it hadn't been incapacitating: his entire skull had been cybernetically enhanced. By the time he returned to his feet, he had seen the newcomer's shield blown far away. Better yet, the annoying Captain had his back to him. One quick bite and it would all be over.

Cottonmouth's jaw dropped tremendously, low enough to engulf Captain Japan's head. Just as he was about to wrap his mouth around his foe's skull, an energy blast took him in the body. Lacking any external cybernetic enhancements there, he was rendered unconscious.

Captain Japan whirled in surprise at the blast. He saw the Wasp hovering over a foe he had assumed defeated.

"I recovered just in time," Wasp said. "Nice to have you back, captain."

"Nice to be back," he seconded.

Puff Adder was beating on the Hulk's head. It was easy since the Hulk was doubled over, completely out of it from the poisoning. By the twentieth blow, the Hulk's head finally hit the ground. Puff Adder thanked the gods for that. His fists had gotten sore from hitting the big lunk's skull so many times. He was going to have to tape them up, maybe dip them in ice or something.

"I knocked out the Hulk!" he shouted as Rattler ran past him.

"We are leaving," Rattler informed him.

Puff Adder said, "Why? I beat the Hulk. I can defeat anyone." He turned to see the heroes heading toward him. All save Thor. She was lying on the ground, gasping as Black Mamba ended her attempt to use her darkforce illusion to break the goddess' back.

Everyone else was unconscious.

"Oops. Gotta run." He barely managed to run up the ramp as it closed behind him in an emergency take off.

"I shall pursue them," Iron Rose said, though she didn't like some of the warning lights still flashing on her diagnostics. Some of the power flow to her boot jets wasn't working right, and she didn't like the idea of plummeting to the ground in armor that had been under such an incredible strain.

A hand fell on her shoulder. "Enow," Thor said, weakly. "I shall bring down our foes' craft."

"You don't look so—" Iron Rose's warning fell on deaf ears as Thor swung her hammer around, building up velocity. The serpent saucer had barely made it off the ground when she released the hammer, sending it clean through the craft and bringing it down hard. As the craft hit the rocky terrain, it collapsed in on itself.

The hammer returned to Thor, who then sifted through the wreckage for a few minutes before finding the object of her ire. "Thou art fortunate I do not kill thee for thine perfidy," she informed Black Mamba.

"S'funny. I don't feel fortunate," a woozy Black Mamba slurred.

"But since we're good guys we don't kill bad guys," Captain Japan reminded his comrade in arms.

Thor realized the truth of the matter and released the woman. In fact, she could no longer remember why she had been so enraged. It had something to do with a woman. But what woman? Someone familiar, but not.

Thor shook her head clear of the thought. Whatever it had been, it was unimportant compared to more important bit of news. "So, thou has reconsidered thy resignation?"

Captain Japan looked his battle worn comrades over. "Yeah. I mean, I didn't really want to give up anyway. And as I saw you guys taking off, I remembered that promise we made when we beat the Mandarin. It felt like I was giving up, and that's something I never do, no matter what. So I hopped in a quinjet and set the autopilot to follow you. And here I am, and I wouldn't rather be anywhere else."

Then he smirked. "Besides, today kind of erased any doubts about staying on. You guys would have been creamed if it wasn't for me saving the day."

Weakly, Daredevil protested from where he lay on the ground, "Would have… won anyway."

"Why don't you just lay there and bleed some more?" Iron Rose snapped.

"Now, now," Captain Japan soothed. "He's just jealous since I kick ass and all he has is the ability to super smell."

"I beat two… all by… myself."

Hawkeye cleared her throat.

"With some help on one," Daredevil corrected.

"Yeah," Captain Japan mused. "It doesn't matter what my mom's opinion of me is. Me and Bucky are here to stay."

"You can leave her out," Hawkeye said, a motion seconded by Iron Rose and Thor.

Before Captain Japan could complain about their attitude regarding his 'partner' Wasp suddenly said, "Where's the Hulk?"

"He's right over…" Captain Japan stopped. Where there had been nearly a thousand pounds of gamma irradiated might, there was now a teenage boy (with only a slightly pimply complexion rather than an emerald one) who rubbed his stomach.

Ryouga said, "My stomach feels awful. I feel like throwing up for a week. Can you guys tell me where I am and why I'm wearing purple pants again?"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Roquat entered his mistress's command center in his usual emotionless manner. Others would have been worried given the negative nature of the reports he bore, but emotions were for humans. He simply existed to serve. His mistress's reaction would be what it would be, and she would say what she would say. There was no point in worrying about what would be.

He handed her the report, which she pored over with a careful eye. After several moments, she turned away from it, anger evident in her features. "Damn! Only an intact Evil Eye would properly power the master mold unit. As it is now, it can only power one individual unit. A very powerful one, to be certain, but only one. We still lack a power source to mass produce the units."

"We still have the two prototypes. And a third is being built by the German branch," Roquat pointed out.

"It's still an unnecessary delay," she said. "I grow weary of these interfering heroes. Something should be done about them. Something nasty and permanent."

"Yes, Mistress," Roquat said.

She stared at him for a moment. "I'm tired of your current form. Change into something else. I'm in the mood for something… poetic."

Roquat considered that. Then his form shifted to that of a handsome man, western European in appearance, with curly blonde hair. He wore a toga trimmed in gold, which showed off a bold physique.

"Apollo?" the woman asked.

"A depiction of Ozymandias."

"It's a good thing you didn't turn into a pair of trunkless legs of stone. In any event, having a king of kings as a servant appeals to me. Purchasing you from AIM was quiet the steal."

"As you say, Mistress."

"I do."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

End notes:

And thus ends Act II of Avenging. Each character was focused on in a chapter, subplots advanced, and a little bit of humor and such. Next Act should be more focused (at least that is what the outline suggests. Tentative title for it will be 'All You Need is Hate' but that might change. But there should be an on going storyline for it. In any case, I hope you enjoyed.

DB Sommer 


	24. Act III Prologue

Avenging

Act III, The Animal Farm

Prologue: Opening Movement

Any and all C+C appreciated. You can contact me the previous chapters and my other works are stored at:

Larry F's new address at:

newer works at Mediaminer

disclaimer: I don't own any of the Marvel characters or other characters from the numerous animes which are within.

Here's a great reference guide for many character and objects in the Marvel Universe.

geeks like me, including people that have worked for Marvel, have put it together. Heck, they refer to stuff even I didn't know about. (Like how it was Warhawk that had killed Atom Smasher I from the brief Black Goliath run. Hey, it was a fun five issues series.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

She looked down from the tall bamboo pole she stood on, gazing at the teeming pools that dotted the landscape as far as one could see. The valley was ancient, predating the time of the emperors. Predating the foundation of the tribe that once lived nearby: a tribe forever dead at the hands of the communists in Beijing. Perhaps the valley predated man itself. Perhaps it was the primordial soup from which life evolved. Stranger things had happened. She had even witnessed some of them.

The origins of the pools and the valley were irrelevant. All that mattered was that it still existed, having been ignored during the firebombing of the nearby village ten years ago. But what would the communists care about a bunch of springs in the middle of nowhere? To them, Beijing was the 'middle kingdom', the center of the world, even if the rest of the world was too ignorant to realize what it revolved around. But they were confident they could restore that realization. They had tried it once through the Mandarin. They would try it again if an opportunity arose. And if none arose, they would create one. It was their nature. Scorpions couldn't help but sting, after all.

That was irrelevant as well. She was becoming too concerned about the forest and losing focus on the tree she desired. It was this valley the people of her former life came to when seeking a life-shifting change. A permanent one. Once a person immersed themselves in the magical waters, their former life would be forever lost to the new being that emerged.

She had already done that once, in fashion, casting off her old life the way a snake shed its skin, in a way more painful than any snake ever had. Now it was time to take that path once again. Less painful, but just as thorough. Fifty-nine people she had killed in the months since her decision to resign from an organization that didn't acknowledge the concept of resignation: only permanent retirement. Having no desire to spend the rest of her life waiting for a dagger to plunge itself into her back, she had no choice but do that life shifting change, to allow her old life to die so a new could take its place.

Besides, depending on what fate decided her new form should take, there was a chance she could encounter someone she had met in her current life. An interesting man whom she wanted to know in a far more intimate fashion.

Course decided, she saw no reason to hesitate. She leapt from the pole and dove into the water.

She hit it with a loud splash and disappeared from view.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"He will see me now!"

Irie Soyozoh shifted his gaze away from the phone in his hand to the closed door to his office, the one the thunderous roar had emanated from. Before he could say anything the doors to the office burst inward and a woman in her mid-twenties stormed in. Rage was evident on her features, the twisted burning sort that originated the phrase 'if looks could kill'. Irie was used to that look. From phantom cats to his family, he had seen it on faces one and all, with him being the target.

The two bodyguards in the room instantly drew their sidearms. Small red dots fixated on the woman's torso and forehead.

"How dare you draw guns on me!" the woman said, offended rather than afraid. Her look temporarily transferred to the two men.

Irie motioned with his hand. The men holstered their weapons, making them disappea as instantly as they had arrived. Staring the new arrival in the eye, Iria said to the phone, "I'm afraid I have to go now. Political business." He hung up the phone, his implacable smile in place. "Sorry about that, but you didn't have an appointment. Now, what can I do for you, Representative Ariyoshi?"

The woman was still livid as she glared at his silent, black-suited bodyguards. "If you think you can intimidate me by having your thugs pull their guns on me, think again."

"I didn't think that at all. They do that to anyone that might be a threat to me. They have to be on their toes in case someone tries to do me harm, though I don't know why anyone would want to hurt a lowly member of the Ministry of Health and Welfare such as myself." He put on an ingratiating smile.

"I can think of plenty of reasons." Venom dripped from her voice. "Some information has come to my attention that implies you and your department are in the midst of a genocidal campaign against what can only be described as 'cat people'."

Irie didn't even blink. This was annoying, but not truly surprising. House of Representatives member Juna Ariyoshi was the fastest rising star in the Diet. She was immensely popular and cultivating a power base that, if left unchecked, would rival that of the most powerful factions in the government. Despite her gender, it was quite possible she would one day run for Prime Minister. Not a good woman to want you dead.

Actually in his experience it was a bad idea to have anyone want you dead. Assassination attempts were stressful, and stress was bad for you. He had been taking pains to remove the primary source of his stress, but it was a long hard battle. And now a new one was coming into existence, if he was reading the situation right.

Compounding things was Ariyoshi's leanings. She was a hard-line environmentalist, which had endeared her to the sitting president of the United States, who had gone out of his way to laud her accomplishments and cite her as a major reason for improving relations between the two countries. That in turn only improved her popularity among her voters, which were not isolationists to begin with, and with a large segment of the population who had enjoyed the economic prosperity that followed with the improved trade relations. She wasn't the only reason for the improved relations, but she had managed to become the one credited with them.

But as it stood, she was still a junior member of the Diet, and should not have had access to information on the Phantom Cats. He would have to find the leak and plug it. But that was put in the back of his mind. Due to secrecy issues, Irie had two options with the politician: complete denial or vague references. He chose the latter, since the former would probably make her even angrier. She was a firebrand, but not stupid. She would never have stormed in to make the accusation if she didn't have convincing proof.

"What we are doing is combating a terrorist organization bent on destroying Japan. Twice already this organization has tried to smuggle nuclear arms into Japan, and would have set one off had they not stolen a decoy instead of the real thing. I assure you the race of the terrorists is not an issue, other than in how to deal with them."

"So you claim, but I find it difficult to believe a race of animals would seek to harm humanity, unless someone was attacking them, prodding them into defending themselves." And the way she said it left little doubt who she felt started things. "Has there been any attempt to open a dialogue with them?"

"Actually we're usually too busy trying to keep them from killing too many of us. You'll note I say, 'too many' since, despite all of our attempts, they have been very successful. If I was at liberty to say, I could list the number of deaths and disasters they've been responsible for which have been… recategorized so as to not unduly frighten the populace."

"National defense: a common rationalization for people that commit unspeakable acts. That your atrocities are directed against a race not even of human origin makes them even more vile," she spat.

It was then Irie realized there was no chance whatsoever he was going to win her over, or explain things in a way that would convince her of the necessity of his actions. What she would see was a cute and cuddly race of animals, oversized walking and talking house pets, no matter how their actions indicated otherwise. She'd just blame the root cause of their behavior on something a human did to them and claim they were entitled to lash out in anger. And if they ended up killing some people, well, there was probably someone like Irie who was responsible for 'making' them do it, even if the cats had been trying to slaughter the human race since long before Hound had been formed. So you couldn't hold them responsible for their actions. If anything, society was probably to blame, which meant it was time to change society.

This was going to be problematic. Ariyoshi could make life very difficult for him. While she probably wouldn't directly spill her guts to the press (no one liked a snitch, after all), she would probably have the information leaked out to reporters in some way, not to mention that she'd probably do everything she could to shut down Hound through the Diet.

It was times like this Irie was sorry he wasn't as evil as she made him out to be. He could just kill her here and arrange it to look like an accident somewhere else. Now, if she went with him somewhere that the Phantom Cats ended up attacking, he wouldn't cry if she ended up as collateral damage in the clash of arms. No, not at all.

It would be best to remind her of her place. "Be that as it may, executive order 10081 forbids the release of this information."

"What the hell is executive order 10081?"

The woman really could only talk in a snarl. Irie had seen Phantom Cats do it, but never a human. It was most enlightening. He reached into his desk and handed her a copy of the order, which was to be distributed to anyone that stumbled on the secret war that was going on to save Japan. It was an official 'national secret' tag that both of the previous Prime Ministers, as well as the current one, had attached to the matter of the Phantom Cats.

Ariyoshi leafed through it, becoming redder as she did. She had probably come to the part where she'd be imprisoned if a leak in her office ended up going to the press. She threw the papers back at Irie, making his bodyguards start to go for their sidearms again before they relaxed. Or more appropriately, didn't continue to pull their weapons. They were well trained bodyguards. The best. They didn't relax. There was no need. They could relax plenty once they were dead.

The councilwoman leaned forward so she was right in Irie's face, easily violating his personal space. "I'll see to it your operation is shut down and you're held accountable for your actions."

"Accountability is certainly a cornerstone of any civilized society," Irie agreed.

Seeing she wasn't going to get him to agree, or make him defensive, or wipe his perpetual smile from his face, Ariyoshi turned away from him. "Go ahead and make light of the situation, Soyozoh. We'll see if you're still smiling when you're put before a board of inquiry that I'll personally head."

"I'm sure you'll be an impartial judge," he said.

For a second it looked like she would try to strangle him. He hoped she would --self-defense would be an acceptable reason to remove her from the playing field-- but instead she turned and headed out the door, making a production of slamming it behind her.

Irie simply remained smiling at the door. He almost wished one of his bodyguards made the suggestion of silencing her. But they were too well-trained for such an unprofessional behavior. And Irie would still tell him no. He'd fantasize about it, though.

One good thing had come of the matter. The councilwoman's discovery made it necessary to speed his newest plan up. He had been a bit leery of 'Operation Deep Freeze', (which had nothing to do with deep freezing. Irie was of the opinion giving a secret operation a name which indicated its true nature was the height of stupidity.) since it involved contracting outside help, but Ariyoshi had made his decision for him. Time was of the essence, and if the operation was successful, he wouldn't have to worry about Ariyoshi slashing his budget or shutting him down. She'd be an enemy for life perhaps, but the emphasis on that was 'for life', which was not necessarily a long time. Lifespans could be so short, after all. Just look at mayflies. No one worried about earning their lifelong enmity, all one day of it.

Irie went for the secure line. The contractor would have to be contacted if he was to insert her in the role she would need to fill.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Eight masked figures, six men and two women clothed in tight black suits, made their way down the metal corridors, moving quickly but as surreptitiously as they could manage. Each of them had a number of belts and packs strapped to their bodies, filled with tools, equipment, and even a weapon or two that they had easy access to.

As they ran, one of them spoke to the man in the lead. "Are you sure we're going in the right direction, Yakumo?"

Yakumo paused. "Using names defeats the purpose of wearing masks, you know."

The speaker said, "Oh, right. It would be simplicity itself for someone to uncover your identity from your very common first name. Especially here, in Eastern Europe, where everyone knows you so well and it would be easy to figure out who you are."

"And we're inside a largely secret citadel in Wundagore Mountain, which the locals avoid since they think it's cursed," another person pointed out.

"As long as our faces aren't recorded, I don't see a problem, Yakumo," a third person mentioned.

"Honestly, I'd like to be publicly acknowledged for my heroic actions," a fourth added.

The second man spoke again, voice seething in anger. "Yes, I too want the world to know how we rescued all of these poor, helpless animals from this butcher, this so-called 'High Evolutionary'."

Yakumo nodded. "If even one tenth of the things we've heard are true, this madman has to be stopped."

"Maybe we should." The second man fingered the pistol he had brought along.

Yakumo shook his head. "No, this is a rescue mission, not a confrontation. Besides, he's reputed to have super-human abilities, something we can't deal with."

"What about Overrider?" one of the others asked.

"Her abilities are strictly electronic in nature, and though he's said to use a high tech suit, I don't want to take a chance it's a front and his powers are natural. Besides, she's all that's keeping the alarms from being tripped and us being detected. No, we stick to the plan and rescue the animals the sick bastard's experimenting on." It sounded like Yakumo would choke on 'experimenting'. "But if he doesn't learn his lesson from this display, and continues his wholesale slaughter of animals, we will take steps to prevent him from his murderous actions. Now let's get moving before we're discovered."

Yakumo indicated the others should follow him again. They only made it a few dozen meters before they came to a stairwell.

"Just like the schematic said. We split up here. Team 1 takes the upper level; I'll lead Team 2 to the lower one. We can't risk radio contact, so meet up at the rendezvous in half an hour or you'll be left behind."

One of the group said, "What if we can't locate the animals in time? It is a big place."

"That hovercraft leaves in half an hour with or without us. As much as I hate to say it, we might not be able to free all of them. It'll pain me to leave any of them behind, but better we avoid capture so we can continue to free animals from their captivity. Animals understand the need for sacrificing for the good of others, just like a mother elephant will sacrifice its life to protect its young at any cost. So no unnecessary heroics, and don't be late."

Everyone acknowledged the statement, and proceeded to separate into two four person teams and headed to their destinations.

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

Yakumo led his group to what was supposed to be the primary holding area for the animals. At least it was according to the blueprints that had been obtained from one of the High Evolutionary's few subordinates, one that had left his employer's care to strike out on his own. That had been another monster who had engaged in the butchering of animals in the so-called name of science. Raiding his lab had produced the blueprints and notes that had apparently been stolen from the High Evolutionary. The notes contained many references to testing some sort of 'Isotope C' on animals, and their results. If what they suggested was true, the madman had to be stopped before his tampering with Mother Nature destroyed the very basis of the animal kingdom.

Yakumo paused outside a door that had 'Barracks' in English, making his guts tighten. Until this moment he had hoped it was some misprint, some fantasy created in the thieving scientist's mind, but evidently it was all true. Maybe killing the High Evolutionary was a good idea. After all, how much better would the world have been had Pandora been killed before she opened the box?

"This is it," Yakumo told the others, and hit the pad.

It responded to his touch and the door slid open. Inside the truth was revealed, making every one of the rescuers give a sharp intake of breath.

There were dozens of humanoids in the area, which was indeed set up like a military barracks. They were doing a number of activities, from talking to one another to reading to using handheld computers. Some were even sharpening a number of weapons, archaic in design but with added features that said they held surprises no medieval knight had ever used.

But what was most unsettling was that while the barracks were inhabited by many, not one of them was human. All of them bore features of animals, mainly in the face. All were easily recognizable as a menagerie of mammals and a handful of reptiles.

All of them looked up in surprise at the human intruders.

"It's true," Yakumo gasped. So many victims. Too many.

"Who the hell are you?" asked the nearest animal-man, one that looked like a leopard.

Yakumo quickly collected himself. "We're part of the Animal Liberation Front, and we're here to free you poor creatures."

Most of the animal men looked at each other in confusion.

The leopard moved closer. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Yakumo felt sorry for the pitiful creature. While the poor animals had been experimented on to increase their intelligence, the High Evolutionary had clearly kept them ignorant of concepts like 'freedom'. Yes, it was obvious he intended them as nothing more than a slave race to do his bidding.

Taking on the airs of a man giving a speech, Yakumo said in a voice loud enough to be heard by all, "Listen to me. The High Evolutionary has tortured you, taking you from your natural environment and bombarding you with radiation as part of an experiment. He has used you as guinea pigs—"

"I am a guinea pig," a voice piped up from the back.

"My apologies. I meant no offense," Yakumo said sincerely.

"S'all right," came the voice from the back.

He continued. "He has used you, ignoring your rights and desires, violating your bodies and perverting them from what nature intended into something for his own personal use." Looking around, he noticed there were a great number of the high-tech weapons in the shape of archaic arms near each bunk. "I can see his true goal is to use you as slaves to his own desires, canon fodder in the name of some immoral war somewhere. Perhaps even selling you to other countries, like cattle. We are here to put a stop to your exploitation."

A skunk man toward the back said, "Actually our weapon training is to both serve as a way to protect ourselves from those that would do us harm, and a form of martial exercise which goes hand in hand with the Code of the Knights of Wundagore."

"That's the code of ethics and laws we live by," a pig man provided.

Yakumo thought he would vomit. "Knights? My god, he's even open about turning you into soldiers for some insane militaristic conquest. He has to be stopped now."

"Oh?" the leopard man asked, putting on a breastplate with a skull on the chest.

"Listen to me," Yakumo said. "You have all been brainwashed by this evil man into thinking this way. You are not warriors. You are simple animals, not tools for humanity to exploit."

"I object to being called simple," a fox man snapped.

"Actually I think it suits you," a rabbit man next to him quipped.

Yakumo shouted, "You see? Already the taint of humanity has made you turn on one another instead of living in harmony as nature intended for you."

The rabbit man and fox man looked at him in slack-jawed wonder.

Yakumo continued, "Don't worry. Come with us and I swear to you not only will we prevent you from being exploited, but we will endeavor to return you to your natural forms so that you may live once again in the native environment that you belong in."

The leopard man drew nearer to Yakumo, towering over him. "Let me get this straight, your goal is to get us to leave our home and follow you so you can revert us to our former lives, taking away our intelligence, communication abilities, and opposable thumbs?"

Yakumo sighed in relief. "Exactly."

The leopard man grabbed Yakumo by the neck of his uniform and lifted him off the floor as though he weighed nothing. He brought Yakumo close enough to feel the hot breath shoot through his bared fangs. "Look, you little piece of shit! I enjoy having things like self-awareness and having more to look forward to in life than wondering where my next meal will come from and when mating season begins."

An ocelot man toward the back said in soothing tones, "Now, now Sir Leopard, he means well."

"Human history is littered with the victims of those that meant well," Sir Leopard retorted. "I don't need some ignorant shit breaking into my home and telling me what sort of life I need to lead."

"That's the brainwashing talking," Yakumo choked out. "You've been abducted from your normal role in nature and twisted by science into something you were never meant to be. It's not normal for you to be tainted like this. Believe me, the last thing in the world you want is to become more human."

"Like you?" Sir Leopard asked.

"Of course not! I'm a good human. I'm risking my life to rescue you from your captor. I mean you don't want to end up like the people in the world ho do evil things, like torture animals, like the High Evolutionary."

"The one that gave us our intelligence?" the pig man supplied.

"Only for his own twisted ends."

"As opposed to you, who wants to take away our intelligence?" the fox man said.

"Allow you to revert to your true role in nature like the rest of your kind."

"Oh yeah, that was a lot of fun," the rabbit man said, staring at his fellow fox man as he spoke.

Yakumo felt the icy grip of failure grip his heart. This was bad. Their brainwashing was quite thorough. They weren't listening to a word he was saying.

The others began donning their own breastplates as Sir Leopard spoke. "You know what, boys? I say we give this gentleman a brief taste of what it's like to be 'one with nature'."

"Deevolutionizer?" the ocelot man asked.

"Deevolutionizer."

The other ani-men closed in on their 'rescuers,' who began to back away.

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

The number two man in the operation, Shinjiro Hikami, was having a hard time locating anything. Evidently this level of the citadel had been redesigned since the blueprints had been stolen. The animal housing area was now just a place for storing building materials. It didn't even have that lingering scent of too many animals being kept in too small a space. And he hadn't been able to discover where they had been moved to.

Shinjiro was about to give up when he spotted a door with a touchpad. Above it, on an electronic screen, were the words, "Holding Cell".

He tried opening the door, but the touchpad didn't respond like the others did. That meant something important was on the other side. "Can anyone open this?"

One of the women in his group walked forward. "I can. While I don't understand a lot of the electronics here, this is actually a pretty basic touchpad." She pulled out a set of tools, undid the faceplate, and quickly bypassed the basic lock on it, trusting Overrider to shut down any alarm that might have been set off.

The door opened into a dimly lit chamber. Shinjiro and his compatriots entered the room cautiously, noticing a number of large computers and consoles nearby. Then they saw what was in the center of the chamber and drew up short.

It appeared to be a large well-muscled wolf man covered head to toe in brown fur, his only clothing a pair of green trunks. He was confined in a huge chair made of some kind of thick metal. His arms were held out in front of him by oversized restraints composed to the same metal. His feet were in a similar state, and several thick metal bands strapped him to the uncomfortable-looking chair. Several IVs ran into his arms and chest, and there was a gas mask over his face (not snout, his shape was human, if the characteristics weren't), which seemed to have a fine green mist swirling in it. Despite that, his eyes seemed sharp and aware as he watched the quartet of people enter the room.

Shinjiro snapped out of his stupor. "Free him," he told the others.

As a group they approached. While they were able to remove the IVs and gas mask, they couldn't figure out how to undo the oversized shackles.

After a few seconds the wolf man spoke. "Ah, thank you very much. There's an entry code for deactivating the shackles' locks. Be a dear and enter this code in that touchpad to the left." He rattled off a series of letters and numbers.

Shinjiro did it himself. There was a loud click, but nothing else happened.

"They have to be manually removed now," the wolf man explained. "It's a double blind system to prevent someone from simply hacking and deactivating the code from a secure location to free a prisoner."

The sliding bolts, now freed from their locks, were removed from the oversized pieces of metal. The wolf man rose to his feet, stretching out, not the least bit groggy.

"Thank you again for freeing me from my incarceration. I was growing apprehensive at my fate," the wolf man said in a very distinguished manner more fit for high society than that of a typical prisoner.

"What fate was that?" Shinjiro asked.

"Death," the wolf man said. "By the way, I cannot help noticing you aren't members of the Knights, nor do you seem to be allies of the High Evolutionary."

"We're with the Animal Liberation Front and we're here to rescue you and your animal comrades from the High Evolutionary's captivity," Shinjiro informed him.

"Noble cause. Noble cause indeed. I'm the Man Beast, by the way."

The others gasped. "What a terrible name," one of them said.

Man Beast arched in eyebrow at that. "Yes, well, it was the name I was given upon my exposure to Isotope C, and you know how it is with names. Awkward to change them once you get used to them and all that. I suppose you have a means to escape?"

Shinjiro nodded. "We have a hovercraft that's waiting to allow us to escape. A mutant hacker's bypassing the citadel's alarms, but that can't last forever. We have ten minutes to get out of here before the shuttle leaves."

"Attack capabilities?" Man Beast asked.

"Just a few handguns and non-lethal stuff." Shinjiro indicated the handgun in his holster.

"Unfortunate. Ah well, one cannot be handed everything in life, now can one?"

One of the others spoke. "Excuse me. I don't mean to be rude, but why were you being imprisoned?"

"A difference of opinion with my, that is our… enslaver. The High Evolutionary is something of a despot, I'm afraid. Megalomaniacal, god-syndrome type. Very disturbed. I vehemently rejected his insane philosophies, so he regarded my followers and I as unredeemable. He was going to make an example out of me."

"Thank god we got here just in time," Shinjiro said. Another animal rescued. If only he could do it for all of them.

"Yes, I am most grateful. In any case, since you don't have the weaponry necessary to help me take the citadel, we must leave in all due haste. I have a number of followers, well, more like trusted friends that are locked up nearby. We must free them and take our leave."

"Where are the other animals? We'll free them, too," Shinjiro asked.

"Ah, it would be a waste of time," Man Beast said sadly. "I'm afraid the High Evolutionary has hopelessly enslaved them to his cause. I tried to convince them to rise up and throw off our shackles of oppression, but instead they captured me. Only my five friends saw the light. Sadly, they were captured, too. This environment is not conductive to throwing off the yoke of tyranny." Man Beast shrugged helplessly.

"We might be able to talk some sense into them," Shinjiro said.

"No, it would be useless and they'd kill you. They have strict instructions to kill intruders on sight." Man Beast smiled, flashing some very sharp teeth in Shinjiro's face.

Shinjiro rethought the matter. Man Beast was from here, and would have a better grip on the situation. He would hardly abandon his fellow animals if he had no other choice. After all, he was insisting on taking his friends along. "I'll take your word for it since you know them so much better than me. We'll have to rescue our friends, though."

"You friends?"

"They went to rescue the other animals."

"How unfortunate. I'm afraid it's too late for them. They've undoubtedly encountered the savages in the employ of the High Evolutionary and are already dead. No sense in throwing away more lives, my new friend. No, we'll rescue my friends and leave." He started to head toward the exit.

"But we can't abandon them," Shinjiro insisted.

Man Beast moved so quickly he seemed to teleport, moving right in front of Shinjiro. "I'm sure they were prepared to give their lives on this rescue operation, yes?"

"Ah, sort of," Shinjiro said, resisting the urge to tremble. Animals didn't frighten him. He was their friend. Animals could sense when one had goodwill toward them. Didn't dolphins save people from drowning all the time?

"Then I'm sure you are as well, but let's hope it doesn't come to that. We can prevent your death by leaving right now. So I insist you come along, and stay close to my side. It wouldn't do to get separated and have one of those marauders find you. You're just lucky you encountered me first." Man Beast exited the room and headed toward the holding cells, not bothering to turn around.

"Yeah, lucky," Shinjiro said hollowly.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"They're going to be late," Sho Komatsu said. He stood waiting next to the hole they had been created upon infiltrating the citadel, convinced the High Evolutionary would suddenly appear and blast him out of existence. Why oh why couldn't they have just done a normal operation, like breaking out lab rats from a university? They had terrible security, just rent-a-cops working for minimum wage that wouldn't put their lives on the line for anything, most of all a bunch of animals. But no, they had to fly to another country, risking an international incident with an obscenely super-powered being. The higher ups simply had no sense of priority.

Overrider was nearby, using her powers to suppress the security systems, by phasing her hand in the wall and doing whatever it was she did. If it wasn't for her, the operation would never have happened. She was quite the godsend for the ALF, with her mutant abilities. And she was sexy, too. Or at least her voice and figure were sexy. That was all anyone could tell about her since she wore an oversized helmet on her head that hid her entire features. She didn't even have eye slits, but one-way red lenses. And her outfit covered her entire body, loose like a pair of coveralls. But for all its looseness, Sho could tell she had a nice rack and some back to her. Maybe if they survived the operation he'd ask her out on a date.

The half-hour was almost up when a group appeared from the closest t-junction. While four of the figures were dressed in the standard ALF infiltration suits, they had a sextet of newcomers with them, all of them animal men. Well, five men and one woman.

From what Sho could see there were humanoid versions of a wolf, gorilla, cat, frog, some sort of brightly plumed avian (with working wings since he was flying) and a woman with red skin, huge pupiless yellow eyes, insect antenna sticking out of her forehead, and insect wings that allowed her to fly even more efficiently than the bird man.

Curiously, the wolf man seemed to be leading the group. "Greetings," he said to Sho.

"Uh, hi." Having an animal speak to him was a first for Sho. He wasn't sure how to react.

Man Beast turned to his animal compatriots. "Get moving, everyone. Croaker, Tabur with me," he said to the frog and cat men. "Dragonfly, Screech, fly alongside the craft for the first few miles to ensure we aren't being followed by any of the Knights' mounts."

"Don't call me Screech!" the bird man screeched.

"Then stop screeching," Man Beast countered. To the gorilla man he said, "Gort, watch our backs until the ship is ready to leave, which, I trust, should take only a few moments."

"You got it, Boss," the gorilla man rumbled in a deep baritone.

Rather than getting on, Tabur sniffed the air, then looked curiously at the silent Overrider. "Why hello there, Babe. I didn't expect to meet someone like you here."

Overrider silently backed away, removing her hand from the wall.

Man Beast scowled at his feline comrade. "Quit flirting with the human, you insolent..." He stopped and sniffed the air, then looked at Overrider, who seemed more apprehensive than ever.

Man Beast stared at her curiously. "We talk later. Right now its time to escape. We take off now," he informed Sho.

"The others aren't back yet and there's still," Sho looked at his watch, "three minutes."

"I assure you they're not coming back," Man Beast said. It was a claim made with finality. Lots of finality. The sort of finality that could be shared with others who doubted its finality.

It was ridiculous, of course, Sho thought. This was an animal, and animals didn't threaten people the way humans did to one another. He was projecting human motives to animals, which was foolish since animals were animals, no matter how science might change them. It might sound and act like a person, but it wasn't. Thankfully. There were plenty of people in the world, people that destroyed too many animals. Science didn't need to make animals more like people; they needed to make people more like animals. Then they could live in harmony with their environment, the way nature intended.

Yes, that made sense. This wolf man was parroting things, the way parrots did. There was no true meanness in his statement. It was a statement of fact that came out wrong, contaminated by humans.

Relieved at figuring things out on his own, Sho entered the hovercraft, eager to get away with the animals they had freed.

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

End Prologue


	25. Act III: Animal Farm Chapter I

Avenging Act III, The Animal Farm Chapter 1

Any and all C+C appreciated. You can contact me at: the previous chapters and my other works are stored at:

Larry F's new address at:  
newer works at Mediaminer disclaimer: I don't own any of the Marvel characters or other characters from the numerous animes which are within.

Here's a great reference guide for many character and objects in the Marvel Universe.

Forward: The events during most of the prologue actually happened before the last chapter of Act II. This picks up where Act II ended.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It was the largest secret meeting the Animal Liberation Front had ever held. Word had traveled through the grapevine of a rousing success in Europe: the emancipation of a number of animals from a particularly gruesome fate at the hands of an evil, super-powered scientist. That their movement confronted such a being and triumphed caused everyone to celebrate.

The venue was a meeting hall the leader had rented for the occasion. All of the big gatherings were held there. No press was allowed, as some of the tactics the ALF employed were technically illegal, if morally right. Luckily only minimal property damage had been inflicted during most of the rescue operations. Since the leadership had been adamant about not publicly claiming responsibility for their actions, they had managed to fly under the radar for the most part. Though there was a segment of the leadership, led by Shinjiro Hikami, who wanted a more public image for their heroic deeds.

Still, few complained about the current leader, founder Itsuki Mikura. Under his direction the ALF had financial resources like never before. Some postulated it was their super-powered hacker, Overrider, that had stolen them, while others maintained Councilwoman Juna Ariyoshi herself was secretly funding them while running interference in the government to keep them at bay.

With most of the membership in attendance for the last half hour, the crowd started to grow restless. Just as the anticipation hit a boil, people began to walk on stage from the back. The leadership of the ALF, with Mikura at the forefront of the procession, greeted their followers with bows, waves of the hand, and other gestures of acknowledgment.

Mikura walked up to the podium and a hush fell over the crowd of nearly a thousand.

Mikura's voice boomed across the room, the speakers placed precisely so all could hear without being deafened. "Greetings, my fellow liberators. Today is a great day in the annals of our movement. A rescue operation, headed by Yakumo Matsui, had success in liberating what might very well be the greatest rescue of animals to date. Sadly, he could not be with us today, his fate unknown. Let us take a moment to remember him and our other fallen comrades."

The hall was silent as heads were bowed and prayers muttered.

After an appropriate silence, Mikura spoke again. "But in the midst of this tragedy, success. Thanks to Shinjiro Hikami." The man in question took a bow in the pause Mikura provided, then sat back down. "Other animals were rescued from what can only be called an execution. And I mean that in a literal sense," he said ominously.

Angry mutterings and a few voices rang out in response to that.

Mikura nodded again. "It is a great honor that I present to you one of the animals freed from his imminent death, and allow him to thank you himself."

A stir of confusion shot through the gathering at the declaration. Confusion became shock as the crowd saw what was unquestionably an animal man, wolf-like in appearance, walk across the stage to the podium. He wore a brown tunic and shorts which showed off his furry, muscled arms and legs. He wore green boots on his feet, though his hands went uncovered, showing his fingers and the claws that were his nails. A green cape completed his wardrobe, accenting both his human and animal sides.

He exchanged bows with Mikura, who stepped aside and took a place with the others, allowing the newcomer to stand alone before the podium.

Man Beast spoke into the microphone, using impeccable Japanese. In a firm, yet gentle voice, he said, "I am the Man Beast, an innocent wolf changed unwillingly into human form by a truly evil being who refers to himself as the High Evolutionary. I find myself a strange creature in a strange land, at least from my perspective. An individual of both the world of nature and the world of man, but truly belonging in neither. Torn in two directions, not knowing which way to go.

"I was a tormented soul who wished merely to be allowed to live in peace, to return to my natural state. However, to do so meant defying the one who had tortured me, turning me into what you see now. My desire for individuality was an affront he could not tolerate. For my defiance I was to be executed. Yet on the dawn of that dark day, the brave men and women of the Animal Liberation Front rescued me, and some of my comrades, at a far too tragic cost.

"I cannot return to my former self. I was tempted to wallow in self-pity for my untenable predicament, but that would allow the sacrifice of the brave soldiers in animal emancipation to be in vain. This must not be!" He pounded the podium, firmly enough for all to hear, but without causing any damage.

"I have now found my calling, thanks to my rescuers: the liberation of all animals from enslavement. I seek a better life where all might live in harmony. To this end I will dedicate my existence to seeking a resolution in the conflict between man and nature. And it is good to know I have allies on my side." He pointed his finger at the audience.

They cheered at the praise, applauding loud enough to cause the walls of the facility to vibrate.

Man Beast waved his hands down, calling for silence. Once it was quiet enough to be heard, he said, "To that end, Mr. Mikura and I have come to an agreement as to my role in the ALF." He looked back to Mikura, who nodded at him in acquiescence, allowing all to see his consent.

Man Beast turned back to the audience. "As of today, I shall lead the ALF in its new crusade, for what better leader than one who has suffered under the yoke of tyranny of the very oppressors whom the movement is to fight against?"

The other people on stage stared at each other in astonishment, and then began clapping. All save Mikura, who jerked in his seat as though shot. He stared at Man Beast in disbelief.

After a moment, the crowd followed, cheering enthusiastically at the idea.

Man Beast continued weaving his oratorical spell. "Yes, my friends, let today mark the dawn of a new beginning of the ALF. You can count on me to personally spearhead the effort to release all those who have suffered as I have at the hands of cruel, inhuman monsters. We will be more aggressive than ever in spreading our message of hope and salvation, bringing this world the peace it so desperately craves. It will be a difficult, long, hard-fought battle, but one that we cannot afford to lose. So we will go forth, rededicated to the salvation of all animals everywhere!"

The crowd roared in approval, reenergized and sounding like they were ready to march on the enemy then and there. Man Beast humbly bowed before them, accepting their adulation in a reserved manner, waving at the crowd as he left the stage. The other people, led by Mikura, followed close behind.

The rest of the Ani-Men waited in the back, out of sight. Man Beast joined them. Just as he was about to speak, Mikura snarled, "I need to talk to you. Now."

Man Beast gazed at him softly. "Of course. My apologies. I almost forgot about the discussion we agreed upon after the speech." To the other people in the backstage area, he said in a genial voice, "I need to discuss some clarifications and issues about the administrative shift with Mr. Mikura, and it should be done in private. All except you, Tabur. You come with us. I need you to do a few things for me afterward."

Everyone bowed and did so, only Mikura and the cat man remaining behind. Mikura's face twitched and he looked ready to tackle Man Beast. "How dare—"

Man Beast held up a warning finger. "Ah, ah, ah. Let's have this meeting in private. I realize you have a few concerns about the nature of the speech I just gave, but we must discuss this like civilized creatures. The movement might suffer if they think there's some sort of breach between authority figures."

Mikura bit his tongue for the moment. He allowed himself to be led to a room in the meeting hall, one set up for an administrator, thereby affording them some privacy.

Man Beast ushered Mikura in. Tabur followed, closing the door behind him. The cat man went to the far side of the room, allowing Man Beast and Mikura the center of the room to carry on their discussion.

By now Mikura's face had turned red in fury. "What in the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Going about the most effective way of freeing my fellow members of the animal kingdom from the wanton cruelty of modern human society," Man Beast said innocently.

Mikura turned a deeper hue of red. "That was not what we agreed upon. You were to become our spokesperson, not take over my position."

Man Beast made a placating gesture. "But this way is so much better. You saw how our fellow crusaders embraced the idea. It's a wonderful way to start the new era of our movement. We'll free more animals than ever."

Mikura remained livid. "Don't use the cause as an excuse for this little power play of yours. I'm not some idiot you can sweet talk like you did the people out there. I am not turning the reigns of power over to you or anyone else. This is my movement. I helped found it. I've lead it to unparalleled success in the last three years. I will not be usurped by some—" He paused for a moment.

"Animal?" Man Beast asked, still benign.

"By an interloper who just walked in here!" Mikura raged. "I don't know what your game is, but what you're going to do is say in front of everyone that you've rethought things and have come to the conclusion that the job of president and spokesperson is too much for you, and you'll settle for being spokesperson while leaving me in charge—"

Mikura's speech ended abruptly as Man Beast lunged forward, grabbing the top of the former president's head and bending it back, baring his throat. With a snarl he bit down on the neck, ripping out Mikura's throat and half the neck with a snap of the jaws. He released the body, letting it slump to the floor as blood fountained from his neck.

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up, you whining genetic abnormality!" Man Beast raged at the spasming body, his own form nearly convulsing in anger. His hands curled into fists, as though he would continue beating on the body despite its gory state.

"I was wondering how long you'd put up with that crap," Tabur said from off to the side, well away from the blood and gore. "For a moment there, I thought you were going soft with all that 'emancipation' crap you were spewing on stage."

Man Beast turned on the cat man, eyes rimmed red in rage. "Oh, I'll be emancipating all the animals, it's true."

Tabur looked at him in disbelief. "What are you talking about? You've never given a crap about animal or man before today."

Man Beast explained things to him.

Tabur held his hand to his chin in thought. "Oh, that makes sense. Yes, I suppose all the animals would be emancipated then, wouldn't they?"

"Indeed," Man Beast said, a semblance of control returning to him. "Now, it's time for me to shake things up a bit around here. First, I'll get cleaned up while you get rid of that," he pointed at the body. "Make sure you wipe up all the blood before it dries up. And get me a toothpick. I think part of his jugular is caught in my teeth." Man Beast ran his long tongue over his teeth, trying to dislodge something.

"What will you tell the others about Mikura's disappearance?"

Man Beast was once again using a composed, almost sympathetic guise. "After years of dedication to our noble crusade, the esteemed former president is on a well-earned holiday. Oh, he was insistent on remaining to help out, but I talked him into it, assuring him I can handle the transition. He more than earned his rest for working so hard for the betterment of myself and our kind. My shoulders are more than broad enough to succeed him, though he can never be replaced."

"Nice touch," Tabur said.

"Yes, it is," Man Beast said, sitting down in a chair and pondering the matter. "We'll need to move things along quickly so no one has the time to realize he's gone. I'll promote Hikami to second-in-command. He's human, which will make it seem they are still in charge to some degree. He's also already high up in the hierarchy, trusted and familiar to the humans. Besides, he rescued me, and he seems aggressive enough for what I have planned. He'll jump at the opportunity. Also he should know enough of the secrets that Mikura did, like where the money's coming from. And…" Man Beast appeared as though he were pondering something.

"Yes?" Tabur asked.

"I'll want to know what sort of super-powered assets the ALF has."

"Why? You've already got me and the others from Wundagore," Tabur pointed out.

"You're less expendable than anyone else," Man Beast informed him. "I might need canon fodder, the more powerful the better."

"What about the Overrider babe?" Tabur asked, eyes gleaming lustily.

"Behave yourself," Man Beast warned. "Just because the High Evolutionary didn't evolve any females for us to mate with doesn't mean you should be ruled by your loins. I will want the full story from her. Her extraordinary abilities are not indicative of evolutionary advancement, like mine. Something else is going on there. If you're not careful, your balls might end up in a mousetrap. And if you screw things up for me with your lust, remember, I can rip your throat out as easily as I did his." He pointed at the body.

"Right," Tabur said sulkily.

Man Beast smiled, a chilling, feral thing that hovered on the edge of madness. "Oh yes, the times are changing, as you're about to find out, you aberrant sacks of flesh. You'll get what's coming to you for trying to jump the evolutionary chain ahead of me."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Inside one of Avengers Mansion's reinforced observation rooms (designed to hold captured SPBs until they could be turned over to the proper authorities), four people surrounded a fifth. The air was thick with anticipation as everyone watched the fifth person expectantly.

Iron Rose, Daredevil, Wasp, and Giant Man had their attention riveted to the young man in the yellow shirt, purple pants, and striped bandanna lashed around his forehead. The young man sat in a chair in the middle of the room, even more anxious than the others.

"Are you sure you don't recall anything when you turn into the Hulk?" Daredevil asked.

"I'm sure I'd remember turning into a giant green creature." After all, Ryouga knew darn well when he turned into a small, four-legged porcine that had to constantly worry about being tuned into bacon by any passerby with a butcher's shop and a cleaver.

"He certainly believes it," Daredevil informed the others.

"It is quite surprising," Wasp said as she flew before Ryouga's eyes.

"In this business, nothing really surprises me anymore." Giant Man wasn't as bothered as usual about being in his heroic guise. For a change, he was doing some real good in helping to examine this 'Ryouga Hibiki' person that the Hulk turned into. Or turned back into, if Ryouga was to be believed. A quick talk with the young man showed Ryouga had no idea of how or why the transformation occurred, only that his memory blackouts were a fairly recent occurrence. Curiously, finding himself in strange locales was not. Evidently he was as directionally challenged as his emerald alter-ego.

After confirming the admittedly damning evidence that Ryouga had been the Hulk, the Avengers had taken the young man back to the mansion in their quinjet. Ryouga had been docile the entire time, complaining about an upset stomach which seemed to have carried over from his larger form. Also he was eager to return to Tokyo, both to find out why he was turning into the Hulk, as well as 'finishing some unfinished business' with someone there. Since the Avengers would take him there, all the better, and he was willing to put up with being poked and prodded while they examined him.

Upon returning, Thor, Captain Japan, and Hawkeye said they had to leave for personal business, leaving the four remaining heroes to ascertain the situation with their teammate, even if he didn't know he was their teammate. It made for a very awkward situation.

After arriving at Avengers Mansion, one of the tests Iron Rose ran indicated Ryouga had an unnaturally high level of gamma radiation coursing through his veins. He didn't radiate it enough to contaminate anyone, even over a prolonged period of time, but he himself should have been ill from radiation poisoning. Not having extensive knowledge about gamma radiation, Iron Rose tried contacting a number of experts on the matter. The world's foremost authority, Bruce Banner, was unavailable since he was on his honeymoon. Reed Richards was off in some other dimension with the Challengers of the Fantastic, Eliot Franklin was in prison, and Walter Langkowski's whereabouts were unknown.

Luckily, another expert, Dr. Otto Octavius, was not only available, but in Japan for a seminar. Unable to turn down a request by a super hero team, and fascinated at the readings they had shared with him, he was rushed by limousine, courtesy of Kunou Industries, to Avengers Mansion where he had run a battery of tests on Ryouga. Now he was poring over the information in the lab while the others waited for his conclusions.

Wasp, becoming thoroughly bored at flying around and not doing anything, finally decided to ask some more personal questions of Ryouga. "So who is this person you have 'unfinished business with'?" If it was some sort of super-villain, she could help defeat him.

Ryouga jumped on her interest like a drowning man would a life-preserver. "Would you listen to my story? It's about a great wrong done to me, one that's made me hunt down the perpetrator to the ends of the Earth."

"Oh, that sounds interesting." Definitely super-villain material. Wasp listened intently.

Seeing he had an audience, Ryouga unburdened himself. "It was three years ago that a backstabbing jerk named Ranma Saotome backstabbed me."

Wasp and Giant Man both jerked. They looked at each other askance.

Off to the side, Daredevil noticed the obvious change in their heartbeats and listened carefully while trying to look distracted.

"And what did Ran, er, this Mr. Saotome, do to you? That constituted backstabbing, that is," Wasp asked.

Ryouga seethed in anger. "He went to the same school I did. He was a late transfer that year. A giant of a kid. Everyone thought he must have been held back a couple of years with how big he was. I was the tallest in school before he came along.

"In the beginning, he seemed okay, but then he showed his true colors during lunch. Battles over bread were vicious, and due to my problems with directions, I always made it there when there was next to nothing left. Every time I was about to grab the last one, he would snatch it away from me. He did that for a week straight, leaving me with nothing to eat. By then I was enraged, and challenged him to a fight. Do you know what he did right after I made the challenge?"

"What?" Wasp asked.

"He offered to share it with me."

"I've killed people for less than that." Iron Rose said flatly. Despite her faceplate being immovable, it managed to radiate sarcasm.

Ryouga's nostrils flared in anger. "He apologized, saying it was the responsibility of the strong to help the weak. I lost my temper and challenged him to a fight then and there because of what he said. But then he pulled out a list and read it, then said fighting in school wasn't something paragons of virtue were allowed to do, but he would challenge me to an arm-wrestling contest."

"If I doze off over here, don't wake me up," Daredevil said from his position in the corner, now considerably less interested than before.

Ryouga still took no note of his audience's increasingly sarcastic reaction to his tale; he was too wrapped up in reliving it. "I'd always been the strongest kid in my school, but Ranma was big and in really good shape, so I took him seriously. We had our arm wrestling match right in front of the whole cafeteria. It took him nearly ten minutes to beat me. It felt like my arm had fallen off by the time my knuckles hit the table."

"And then you vowed vengeance on him?" Giant Man asked.

Ryouga looked at him in confusion. "Heck no. He won fair and square. He looked as bad as I felt, too, barely able to move his arm. He said I was the only guy his age that had ever made him work so hard for an arm wrestling match. When he found out I knew martial arts, he suggested we become friends. Then we could spar and stuff like that."

"So he's not an enemy, but a friend, and that's why you're looking for him?" Wasp prodded.

Ryouga pounded his fist in the table, his skin turning just a faint hint of green. "Never! He's an evil betrayer that pretends he's your buddy so he can stab you in the back! If I ever get my hands on him, I'll…!" He slammed a fist into his palm hard, envisioning it as Ranma's head.

Now Iron Rose became interested. "Did he steal a girl from you?"

All anger disappeared, replaced by a crimson blush. Ryouga played with his fingers. "No, I've never had a girlfriend." He composed himself. "But it was over a girl, in a way. That same day Ranma said we could be friends, I was walking back from school when I saw some younger kids picking on this girl that was about their age. They were calling her 'freak' and 'weirdo' and were shoving her around. She was crying a lot.

"Well, I couldn't let these guys pick on her. So I walked over and told them to knock it off. Then they called me a mutie-lover and tried to beat me up. I tossed them aside without even working up a sweat. Like most bullies that get stood up to, they were cowards at heart. They started bawling their eyes out and ran off.

"After they left, I made sure the girl was all right. She stopped crying and thanked me. I asked her why they were picking on her and she told me she was a mutant who could turn invisible. I asked her why she hadn't turned invisible to avoid them, and she said that whenever she panicked, she couldn't control her powers. I was doubtful, but then she disappeared right before my eyes. I had never seen anything like it. And then she thanked me, and, ah, kissed me on the cheek." Ryouga's eyes nearly glazed over in what was obviously an oft-recalled fantasy.

When it seemed Ryouga wouldn't continue, Giant Man prodded him. "And this Ranma figures into things exactly how?"

Ryouga's anger returned. "He popped up not more than a minute later with those little punks leading him to me. He asked me if I had roughed up those bullies, well, he said 'poor defenseless kids', I called them bullies, which they were, so I said yes. I told him they had it coming since they were picking on the girl not more than a minute before. He looked around and asked me what girl, since he didn't see one and it was in a big playground with lots of wide open spaces. I told him it was the invisible one and that I didn't like his tone of voice. It didn't help that all those snots started crying again and accusing me of taking their lunch money. When I told them to knock it off or I'd really make them sorry, Ranma got all sad and said he couldn't stand it when tough guys picked on weak kids and didn't even have the guts to admit to it. I didn't like being called a liar, so we had a fight.

"And you lost," Daredevil said tiredly.

"He tricked me with his superior height and strength!" Ryouga shouted. "Worse, the next day, he lied to everyone claiming I was the bully, dirtying my name. Everybody treated me like I was a leper or something. So I challenged Ranma to a duel to get my revenge for tricking me and dragging my name through the mud. Only the jerk didn't show up for it. I waited two days and he never showed."

"How long did it take you to get there?" Iron Rose asked,

Ryouga ticked the numbers off on his fingers. "Um, three days, I think."

"I knew it," Iron Rose mumbled.  
Ryouga continued. "I found out later that he had transferred out of school, no doubt fleeing the righteous vengeance I had in store for him."

"A normal reaction, since he proved he was stronger than you and beat you in a fight," Iron Rose said tiredly.

Ryouga was lost in fantasies of vengeance once again. "I traveled all around Japan, and even China, searching for him. It was there that something… horrible happened to me."

"You became the Hulk?" Giant Man asked.

"No, becoming the Hulk is easy compared to what happened to me."

"Which is?" Wasp asked.

"A secret I'm too ashamed to admit," Ryouga said.

"That story would be a secret I'd be too ashamed to admit," Iron Rose muttered.

Ryouga ignored her. "In any case, I'm seeking revenge on Ranma for all the wrongs he did to me."

"The next person that calls me obsessive, I punch out. I'm legally entitled to do it after hearing that story," Daredevil informed the others.

Wasp and Giant Man looked at one another. The Wasp flew up to his ear and spoke to him too softly for even Daredevil to hear. After several moments of consultation, Wasp said, "Well, it looks like you're going to have to give up your revenge on Ran… I mean, Mr. Saotome."

"The heck I do!" Ryouga shouted, his skin again taking on a dull green hue.

Giant Man spoke in soothing tones. "On the contrary, you're obviously the wronged man here. Not only would it show you're the better man by turning the other cheek, but you can't fight this Ranma."

"Why not? I can take him easy."

"Because you might turn into the Hulk," Wasp pointed out. "You still don't know what makes you change back and forth. What if you were to change in the middle of a fight? Why, Ranma would end up a big red splotch, and we'd have to arrest you ourselves for murder, and we wouldn't want to do that to a teammate."

Ryouga began searching for a way around the logic. "I won't turn into the Hulk, then."

"You mean you can control it?" Wasp asked.

"Uh, sure."

One didn't need Daredevil's enhanced senses to detect the lie, but it didn't hurt. "Try again."

"I'm sure I can!"

"Even you don't believe that," Daredevil corrected.

"And how can you tell? Are you reading my mind?" Ryouga asked suspiciously.

"Body language, which is just as good and nowhere near as invasive. Mind reading is a gray area when it comes to the law," Daredevil said.

"Well, don't read my body!" Ryouga shouted.

"But it's such a nice body," Wasp said playfully.

Ryouga began blushing again, while Giant Man tensed up, and not in a good way.

"While he's no Captain, he has a pleasing form," Iron Rose confirmed.

Ryouga began twiddling his thumbs nervously at being the center of attention of so many females. 

It was at that moment the door to the room slid open and Dr. Octavius entered, attracting everyone's attention. Ryouga breathed a sigh of relief at not having girls stare at him, even if he did enjoy it in a weird way.

Iron Rose switched over to English for the doctor's benefit. Everyone was fluent enough that they could at least follow the conversation, and in Giant Man's case, add to it if needed.

"Ah, Doctor, it is good to see you so soon. Again I must apologize for dragging you away from your seminar."

Octavius waved a dismissive gesture at her. "It was frightfully boring. I only took it because my research in the United States was at a temporary halt."

"Why is that?" Iron Rose asked.

"Someone stole my set of mechanical arms. A nutcase that named himself, 'Dr. Octopus'. I believe he was Japanese, actually. He evidently read an article about the arms, thought they would be a wonderful addition to his villainous repertoire, and decided to steal them from me. He hit me in the face with a pastry, and while I was blinded by a tasty cream filling, he put them on and fled with them."

"That's terrible," Giant Man said.

Octavius shook his head. "Not really. I saw him run off in them and, frankly, he looked quite silly. I had no idea how ridiculous I looked in those things. It's no wonder people made derogatory remarks behind my back, and I was never able to get a date. I'm in the process of redesigning them so they can be operated by remote. No more wearing them." He nodded sagely.

"In any case, allow me to share with you my analysis of your comrade's condition."

Everyone listened eagerly to the doctor.

He began speaking in a voice practiced for his seminar. "Understand this is a preliminary investigation and my conclusions are somewhat incomplete. However, I am confident in my findings. There is no doubt that at some point Mr. Hibiki was irradiated with what should have been a lethal dose of gamma radiation. However, the fact he is still alive, and with no visible effects from his exposure, seems to bear out a theory several radiation theorists, such as myself, have postulated, but had no way of testing.

"While it's a minority opinion in the scientific field, I have always been firm in the belief that while intense bombardment of gamma radiation will usually result in death, cancer, or other toxic syndromes, a small percentage of the population might be mutated by them, changed into something far beyond normal people. In the case of Mr. Hibiki, he acquires additional mass through unknown means, possibly some heretofore undiscovered chemical reaction, and becomes nigh-invulnerable. What really surprises me is that he goes back and forth between the two conditions. I had always operated under the assumption such a mutation would be permanent in nature. That there is a constant transition between forms makes me wonder if some other sort of energy was involved during the initial bombardment. Or it could be some other factor. This is very basic and all theoretical, you understand."

"But what is this Hulk thing that invades my mind and kicks me out of it?" Ryouga asked in broken English.

Octavius stared curiously at him. "While the physical changes are almost certainly a result of your gamma irradiation, the change in your mentality is not. It's quite impossible. There's nothing gamma rays can inherently do to allow an outside force to take over your mind. Its effects are physical in nature. If it simply made you less intelligent, I would assume your mind is physically affected by the transformation, almost like a temporary form of brain damage, or at least impediment in your ability to think. However, since you and your compatriots assure me this Hulk thing believes it is its own unique entity, my suspicion is that you had a latent multiple personality disorder, and that the physical transformation was the last trigger required for you to create one. I warn you, I am a layman with only a handful of courses in psychology. You would have to discuss this with a professional, such as Doctor Leonard Samson, who specializes in SPBs. Have you been under a lot of stress lately?"

Ryouga recalled his transformation into a piglet and how Ranma's presence had dogged his very existence for years. "More than any man should have to suffer."

"Then that is probably correct. Luckily, this other personality of yours seems very passive under most circumstances, although quick to anger, from what your friends say."

The others nodded in agreement, having seen the Hulk's volatile nature on more than one occasion.

"Do you know what triggers your transformation?" Octavius asked.

Ryouga thought about that one. "No, but usually, right before I have my blackout, I'm under a stressful situation. Like creatures trying to eat me, or being buried alive, or robots attacking me. That sort of thing."

"I… see," Octavius said slowly. "Perhaps blood pressure is related to it."

"He did seem to turn a touch green every time he got angry," Iron Rose added.

"Each time his heart rate picked up," Daredevil confirmed.

"Most likely that is the trigger, then. And once your body transforms, your mind does so as well. While your mutation doesn't seem to have any physically debilitating side-effects, you might wish to submit yourself to a proper scientific institute so they can give you a more accurate prognosis."

Ryouga shook his head fiercely. "No way! I'm not going to be poked and prodded anymore. I've had enough. If changing into the Hulk isn't going to kill me, I can deal with it. I'm used to changing into things I don't want to," Ryouga muttered under his breath.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Tokyo, Japan: 1945

Kang waited patiently for the ship's cargo ramp to finish touching down on the dock. Moonlight had to serve for illumination. There was too much fear that lights would aid in the precision of American bombs. Unlike the others, Kang had no fear of the sound of propellers, the whistling of tons of explosives cutting through the air and detonating, sending fire and shrapnel everywhere. There was no bombing here on this night; history had shown that. He had been meticulous in his research. The single action he was about to take would do nothing to affect his ability to prevent the Tragedy, nor erase his history.

The surrender would be coming soon, once the real bombs dropped. Even that knowledge didn't affect him. Despite being in the Japan of the past, he felt no surge of patriotism or sense of loss over what was to come. World War II was distant history in his former life, not worth even a moment's consideration. He felt no connection to it, and to be honest, he never cared about his country's ideologies. He was an individual, with the wants and needs of a unique being. He lacked the pathetic sheep-like mentality of the majority of humanity, who attached themselves to another's cause like oversized remoras. All that mattered was saving his love in his past, so that he could have a future. He'd personally drop the bombs himself to prevent the Tragedy. He'd sacrifice anyone, everyone, if it meant saving her.

The Avengers had to die.

And the seeds for their destruction would be planted now. He had checked the timeline furiously. Removal of them at the juncture he would travel to changed nothing of Kang's own past. She would live, he would be who he was, and all would be well.

Kang was without his helmet and faceplate tonight, though he wore his armor under his trenchcoat. He would not go anywhere in the past without his chronal devices on his person. Being stranded in the past would ruin everything. But the mask had to go. The man standing next to him, Tetsuo, wouldn't trust someone that wasn't obviously Japanese.

Well, there was one exception: their contact, whom Tetsuo had known before the incident which had transformed the other into one of the few 'super powered beings' Japan had during the war. Of course, he was shared with the Germans and Italians too, but that was inevitable, given the contributions all had made before Agent Axis' creation. Now he was an amalgamate of the best spy from each country, thanks to a freak accident. He had the strength, agility, and intelligence of all three, and his skills in espionage were unparalleled on the planet. Those skills were instrumental in stealing the item Kang needed out from under the Nazis' noses. Having three loyalties meant a certain degree of realism from Agent Axis. The war was over, and he had no desire to become a martyr for a trio of lost causes. And with what Kang had offered him, he could hardly refuse. 

The man in question came down the loading ramp even as a huge crate was lifted up from the ship via crane to be set down on the dock. Compared to the gaudy heroes and villains of the future, Agent Axis was mundane. He was dressed predominately in grey, with a loose cowl that had eye slits, a low brimmed hat, and a grey cape. None knew the face that lay underneath that cowl. All the better to be a spy if no one knew what he looked like, not even his own masters.

Agent Axis stopped in front of the pair, his eyes fixing on Kang. "You have the item you promised?"

"Only if you have the item I need."

"Oh yes, it is here." Agent Axis turned, his eyes staring upward at the five-meter long, three-meter wide wooden crate as it was lowered to the dock. "I had to sneak it out of the country. Hitler was somewhat attached to the idea of using it as a doomsday weapon."

Suddenly in almost a different voice, Agent Axis began speaking in German, "It was an act of betrayal."

Then in Italian. "Don't be foolish. Germany was always intended to survive after the Fuhrer's death. The idea it must die with him was never part of the cause."

"Yes, you are correct," the German voice said with a hint of sadness.

Once more in Japanese, Agent Axis said to Kang and Tetsuo. "Sorry about that. Sometimes I'm of three minds on matters. Luckily majority rules, and all of us are quite rational." He handed Kang a small metal box with a single button and a mesh, like on a walkie-talkie. "Push that and the robot activates. You instruct it what to do through the speaker. That is all that is required to use the item. Now, in return for this…."

Kang handed him a vial with a clear liquid in it. "Drink this and your lifespan will be extended three times that of a normal person." It wasn't a lie. His life span would be tripled. Of course, even if he didn't drink it he'd still live that long, as the authorities found out when he was caught by the Avengers in Kang's pre time-traveling days. But since the spy knew it in advance, he could plan accordingly, so Kang really was doing him a favor.

Tetsuo finally spoke, anger in his voice. "So you say this Nazi robot will avenge our defeat at the Americans' hands?"

Kang turned to him. "Yes. It will assassinate the ruling party of our subjugators, and that assassination will lead to the Japanese people taking up arms and successfully conquering the world this time." Now that was a blatant lie, but that was the least of Kang's sins. Let the old man die, convinced he would be instrumental in avenging his nation's defeat. As long as Tetsuo Kunou buried the Fourth Sleeper beneath his ancestral home, the Avengers' deaths would be assured.

Even as Agent Axis quaffed the water and Kunou laughed gleefully over his future victories, Kang activated his time travel device to the preset coordinates. There was a moment's disorientation, then the world switched while Kang appeared to stand still. Suddenly it was the middle of the day, and he stood outside the gates leading to Avengers Mansion.

He pushed the button and said to the speaker, "Activate and kill everyone in the building above you."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Fifty meters beneath the earth, entombed in a concrete chamber with no way out, surrounded on all sides by tons of earth, the Fourth Sleeper activated. It processed its orders and raised its head up toward the surface.

It was a doomsday device created in a freak accident by scientists of the Third Reich in the waning days of the war. Its method of destruction was simple. It had the ability to combust any material known to man. The weaponry was concealed in its overly wide head unit, with the faceplate being the opening from which the combustion process was directed.

It raised its head toward the surface. It would liquefy all of the rock above it nearly instantly, the beam projecting upward, making the surface area above it a miniature volcano. It would be unaffected by the molten rock, thanks to its other unique ability. But whatever resided above would die in a fiery holocaust.

It triggered the connections to activate its combustion function, but nothing happened. It repeated the process, and when that failed as well, ran an internal diagnostic. It discovered that the triggering mechanism and internal generator had both corroded due to age and weak materials.

While its primary offensive device was disabled, that was hardly its only weapon. It could still carry out its instructions. It would simply require a more direct approach.

xxxxxxxxx

"But your condition should be properly researched. You could represent unprecedented inroads on the effects on gamma rays on the human body," Octavius insisted.

"I'm not an inroad. I'm just a normal… why is there a weird robot-looking thing floating up through the floor?" Ryouga didn't like robots. He had no idea why, he just didn't. In fact they bothered him almost as much as Ranma. He didn't care for hills lately, and he didn't know the cause of that either. Just that they made him uneasy, no matter how serene they might appear.

All eyes turned to the overly large humanoid that moved upward through the floor, as though either it or the structure was nothing more than an elaborate hologram. It was mostly purple with gold around its arms, legs, and face. It stood about ten feet high and eight feet wide, with large arms and stubby legs. The most bizarre thing about it was the fact that it possessed no neck, its oversized head and face attaching themselves directly to the trunk of its body.

Daredevil noted the heartbeats of everyone spike and their attention rivet to the center of the room where Ryouga had claimed there was something moving through the floor, but even with his radar sense Daredevil detected nothing. "It's an illusion. It's probably some sort of…."

Suddenly it was there, as though it had been invisible to his radar sense. He shouted, "No, wait! I was wrong!"

The Fourth Sleeper went into action, designating the armored figure as the most potentially dangerous and focusing its initial attack on her. It charged across the room, knocking Ryouga and his chair aside as though they weighed nothing, sending them to the floor, Ryouga striking his temple hard enough to make it bleed.

That the newcomer was robotic in nature had attracted Iron Rose's instincts as an engineer, and she had began visually dissecting it, rather than focusing on its potential as an immediate threat. She paid the price as she was barely able to brace herself for the Fourth Sleeper's charge. It slammed into her with a greater strength than its form implied, throwing her into a wall, denting its titanium skin.

As Octavius darted out the exit, Daredevil pulled out a billy club out and extended the cable, wrapping it around the Sleeper's legs. He tried to trip it up by pulling, but its mass was far too large and strength too great. Instead it kicked out with a leg, whipping Daredevil around and into a wall. He rolled with the blow as much as he could, but misjudged the distance, and ended up striking chest first, stunning him.

The Fourth Sleeper was about to continue its attack on the fallen Iron Rose when a blast of energy struck it in the face. Sensors far more sensitive than the human eye locked onto the Wasp's tiny form and he swung at her.

"No!" Giant Man cried out at seeing the girl of his dreams threatened by the mechanical monstrosity.

The Fourth Sleeper turned to face the new threat. It took a step toward Giant Man.

Giant Man grew as high as he dared in the room, a mere twelve feet. The mechanoid froze in mid-stride for a second.

That was the opening Giant Man wanted as he struck it in the chest with as much strength as he could muster, knocking the robot back a handful of feet, staggering it, though its internal gyroscopes allowed it to remain upright.

That was all the time that was necessary for the now angry Ryouga to change into his emerald alter ego. He rose to his feet, thoroughly enraged. "Stupid No-Neck Robot attacked Hulk, just like all robots do. Hulk hates robots! Hulk will smash!"

"Not if I get it first!" Iron Rose promised as she raised her hands and unleashed a pair of full-intensity repulsor rays at the robot.

Rather than impacting against the mechanoid's armor, the blasts went through it just as it had gone through the floor earlier. But they didn't stop there, as the robot had been in a direct line between Iron Rose and the Hulk. Both blasts struck the Hulk right in the face, hurting even him.

Holding his face, the Hulk turned in fury upon his comrade. "Why did Tin Can Girl shoot Hulk?!"

"It was an acc--" She stopped, realizing that the truth might not work on her companion. Best to make the explanation simple and something he could appreciate. "I mean, the No-Neck Robot tricked me."

That made sense to the Hulk. Far too many people tried to trick him. "Hulk will not let No-Neck Robot trick him. Hulk will smash first!" And with that he leapt straight at his foe.

"Wait!" Iron Rose cried out too late as the Hulk also went through the immaterial robot and plowed right into his armored comrade, sending her into the wall where she hit hard.

"Sorry," Hulk said, then heard a thumping. Turning, he saw the Fourth Sleeper running at him. Rather than becoming angry, the Hulk laughed and stood his ground. "Stupid No-Neck Robot thinks Hulk will fall for the same trick twice."

The Fourth Sleeper ran full tilt into the Hulk, driving him backward. Iron Rose, who was trying to get to her feet, held up her hands and instinctively activated her electrical ribbon system. It proved to be the worst thing possible as wires shot out from her gauntlets, wrapping themselves around the airborne Hulk and electrocuting him.

The force of the blow sent the Hulk flying through the air, taking Iron Rose with him. The wall was hit in the exact same spot it had two other times. A third impact was more than even the wall could take, and the electrocuted behemoth was driven through it, Iron Rose whipped through the air along by her ribbons.

Before the robot could press its advantage, it was struck in the face again by Wasp's blast. She barely flew out of the way of his huge grasping hand.

"Keep away from her!" Giant Man shouted, punching at the robot again.

The fist went through it, leaving Giant Man off balance. Once no part of the large man was inside the intangible robot, the Fourth Sleeper solidified, striking Giant Man's ribs, bruising three of them and sending the towering figure to the floor. Giant Man clutched at them in pain.

The Fourth Sleeper took a couple of steps toward him when Giant Man shrank, hoping the pain might ease some if he was smaller. Again the robot froze in mid-stride for a full second. After the second passed, it walked toward Giant Man again.

Something clicked in Giant Man's mind. He shot up to a height of twelve feet again. The mechanoid froze, seeming to stare right at him.

Giant Man punched the motionless form. The Fourth Sleeper recoiled from the blow.

"Wasp! shoot him, then grow!"

Wasp did as she was instructed. The robot lunged at her, but she grew before he could wrap a hand around her. He froze, statue still.

Wasp unleashed a full size blast at him, scorching the armor around the face once more. She was denting the head, but not much else.

Just as the Fourth Sleeper began to move Giant Man shouted, "Over here!" and shrunk. The robot froze, so the hero grew and kicked the robot, knocking him over.

"I knew it! Something about our size changing makes him 'think' things over, and none too quickly. If we keep changing size right after we attack, we should be okay."

Testing the theory, Wasp shrunk and blasted the robot in the same place again, slowly wearing away the armor. Then grew and did the same. Giant Man repeated the gesture as well.

By that time the robot was motionless, save for how it was thrown around by the combined assault of the two heroes. While its Nazi creators programmed it to deal with many things, size-changing targets was not one of them. It lacked adaptive processes necessary to 'learn' from its experience of something so far out of its parameters. It felt no frustration at its inability to quickly process data on the targets. It felt nothing. It simply attempted to follow its programming to the best of its abilities.

And then the Hulk emerged from the hole in the wall. Angry, but perplexed. "Hulk doesn't know if he should hit No-Neck Robot or not!"

"Hit him while he's confused!" Wasp called out.

That was good enough for the Hulk. He ran over to the motionless robot and hit him as hard as he could. Metal buckled from the force of Hulk's fist to its torso.

"Now Hulk can smash!" He brought another blow down on the Fourth Sleeper's back, caving it in.

"That's it, Hulk! Knock his block off!" Wasp cried out.

The Hulk did so, the fist catching the robot in the head, bouncing it around the room like a giant pulverized racquetball made of metal.

Sparks flew from open rents in the body of the robot as it smoldered for a second before collapsing in a heap.

Iron Rose finally returned to the room, looking very much the worse for wear. She walked over to the pile of scrap and nudged it with an armored boot. "Well, that was interesting. I'll take him apart and see if I can figure out his origins. Then we can give whoever sent this welcome card a proper greeting."

The Hulk said, "Hulk will help take robot apart. Hulk is good at it."

"So I see," Iron Rose said, staring at the headless automaton.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Kang waited patiently outside. The sounds of battle ended, but when he ordered the robot to come outside, static was the only response. When he saw the Iron Rose fly off with what was obviously the shattered remains of the Fourth Sleeper, he teleported away to the Citadel of Time.

Kang screamed in rage for an eternity that literally only lasted a second.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

End Chapter

The Doctor Octopus reference is from Avenging's sister series, Defending. Hayato Myojin followed up on his thoughts.

DB Sommer: Member of the Fanfiction Mailing List since '97. Come on and join the fun for some good C+C and stories. Just send an email to with 'subscribe ffml' in subject line and you're in. 


	26. Act III: Animal Farm Chapter 2

Avenging Act III, The Animal Farm Chapter 2

Any and all C+C appreciated. You can contact me at: the previous chapters and my other works are stored at:

Larry F's new address at:  
newer works at Mediaminer disclaimer: I don't own any of the Marvel characters or other characters from the numerous animes which are within.

Here's a great reference guide for many character and objects in the Marvel Universe.

Chapter: Man Beast made his bid for control of the ALF, Ryouga related the tale of his grudge against Ranma, while Kang went time traveling in order use the Fourth Sleeper to destroy the Avengers, failing in the process largely thanks to Giant Man and the Wasp.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

"Don't tell me you're going in again?" Kiyoshi Sogabe asked.

Ichiro Nikaido made certain his fellow scientist could see his smile through the hazmat suit's clear faceshield. "I'm sure I'm about to make a breakthrough. I figure a couple more hours and my luck will change. I can feel it."

Kiyoshi rolled his eyes. "You've been at it for twenty-four hours straight and aren't any closer to the solution than you were before. Personally I think you're developing a very Ahab-like vendetta in this project."

"Arab?" Ichiro pronounced slowly.

"Ahab. It's a reference to Moby Dick, a Western novel. The captain in it wanted revenge on a whale. That desire for vengeance consumed him and ended up destroying all of those around him in the end," Kiyoshi explained.

Ichiro gave a dismissive wave. "You and your foreign influences. Give an example from Japanese literature next time." He laughed and headed to the lab.

Kiyoshi shook his head sadly. Ichiro had become disturbingly obsessed with his project. He hadn't even checked his suit's seals properly before heading in. Not that anything he was handling would be hazardous, but it was standard operating procedure. The rules were there for a reason. Well, Kiyoshi might have skimped on them from time to time, too, but he was more careful than that stumblebum friend of his.

He supposed it didn't really matter since it was Ichiro's problem. Kiyoshi went to the showers and cleaned up. Ordinarily he would just grab a shower at home rather than using the company's facilities, but he had a date with a cute little receptionist in engineering he had been hitting on for the last month. He couldn't figure out why she had finally accepted, unless she had broken up with her previous boyfriend, or found out what Kiyoshi's salary was. In any case, you used whatever got your foot in the door and charmed them from there.

Thirty minutes later Kiyoshi was cleaned up and ready to go. A quick glance at his watch revealed his date wouldn't be done for another twenty minutes, after which they would go straight to the nearest bar. That was enough time to check on Ichiro and see if he had fallen asleep next to the old 'Bunsen burner' as his old college professor had termed it when working extra long shifts.

Kiyoshi used his ID card to enter the security room. He talked briefly to the bored guard (who looked even sleepier than Ichiro) manning the monitors before turning to the ones focused on the lab. A glance showed Ichiro hard at work with his Petrie dishes, tuning out the rest of the world he wanted to save.

Kiyoshi almost left, then on impulse, turned on a speaker to the lab. "So, Ahab, how goes the hunt for the great white whale?"

Ichiro turned away from his work and looked up at the monitor. "Great whites are sharks, not whales."

As Ichiro said that, he knocked over one of the vials he had been using. The top had not been clamped shut properly, and the contents spilled on the floor, puddling at his feet.

"Thanks for making me spill my project. I just got done working on that one," Ichiro said testily.

Kiyoshi watched as Ichiro bent over, then stopped. The scientist looked at his gloved hand for some reason.

"What is it?" Kiyoshi asked.

Rather than answering, Ichiro began to convulse. It was a slight tremor at first, but then became more violent, like an epileptic seizure.

"Shit, I've got to get down there." Kiyoshi turned away from the monitor.

Just as he was about to leave the security room he heard the guard gasp. Kiyoshi turned and gazed in shock at the scene in front of the monitor.

Ichiro had headed toward it, his facemask pointed at the camera in an obviously pleading gesture. Blood poured from his nostrils and eyes as he convulsed uncontrollably. It was the most horrifying thing Kiyoshi had ever seen. He watched transfixed as blood ran down his friend's face, covering it in a crimson mask.

And then Ichiro hit the floor, his body finally ceasing its movement.

Kiyoshi was in shock, barely hearing the guard babbling to himself as he leafed through a manual about what to do in such a situation. Finally the guard hit the alarm that sealed the lab and alerted the bio-hazard team to the calamity.

In the time it took him to do that, Kiyoshi watched as the suited form of his friend slowly began to flatten, until it appeared there was nothing left other than an empty suit.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"What do you mean it's being classified as an 'industrial accident'?"

Kiyoshi stared at his supervisor, Tetsuki, a middle-aged man of no talent whose only reason for being head of the department was that he had written a paper thirty years ago that had garnered enough attention for him to be proclaimed the next Petrie. Only it turned out he was closer to Walli than Julius. But not before managing to cement his position in the company.

"Technically it was," the blubbery man said, more nervous than Kiyoshi had ever seen him.

"He did not fall into an," he looked over the report again, "incinerator!"

"Some of the details might be a bit… embellished, but it was an industrial accident," his supervisor repeated. Then Tetsuki said in a whisper, as though his office were full of people instead of empty. "Look, the company is in the final stages of being sold and the president doesn't want any waves during the last days of the transaction. So it was decided by the select few people that know about the incident to classify it as something that won't draw attention. After the sale is complete, we can clarify the situation with our new management. Trust me, they'll appreciate our ability to keep such trifling details to ourselves. Think of it as a resume builder."

Kiyoshi felt like slapping the man around, but refrained, mostly because he himself wasn't exactly in the best shape in the world ('potatoey' being the most accurate descriptor). Besides, Kiyoshi was mostly resigned to the fact the situation was going to be swept under the rug. He rather liked his job and his seven-figure salary. Going public with the fact one's pharmaceutical company had its own workers falling over dead from its experimental research was not conducive to inspiring trust in the populace's eyes. Nor would it be conducive to him finding a new job. Lots of people might say they found whistleblowers admirable, but not to the point of hiring them.

"Fine. It was an industrial accident," Kiyoshi said as though reading a script.

Tetsuki jiggled in his seat. "Good man, good man. I'll write an excellent recommendation in your next evaluation."

That wouldn't hurt. Kiyoshi was ready to let the matter rest, save for one niggling detail. "I have a request to make. Since I was Ichiro's closest friend, I'd like to be the one to destroy what killed him: Culture 1201."

Tetsuki shifted uneasily in his chair. "Yes, about that. Well, we're not destroying Culture 1201 just yet."

"What? Why?"

Tetsuki continued shifting his corpulent mass uneasily. "You see, since our new owner is in the weapons industry, they might be inclined to… look at it considering its effectiveness."

"Culture 1201 was supposed to be a cure for cancer, not a bio-weapon!"

"Yes, well, I think we can agree it's fairly useless as a cure for cancer in its current state, but there's no reason for Ichiro to not have some sort of legacy, his death not being in vain and whatnot. In the meantime, we're going to move up to animal testing with it. Maybe we can get it to work the way it's supposed to, and if not, we'll have valuable data on it for when the new ownership takes over."

Kiyoshi was speechless. He didn't bother protesting further: it would accomplish nothing and destroy what credibility he had recently built with his supervisor. Still, this was not the sort of legacy Ichiro would have wanted.

Not at all.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Soun Tendou firmed his resolve, something he rarely did when it came to his daughters, but there were issues that needed deciding in regards to Ranma. Soun was beginning to suspect his girls weren't as enthusiastic as they had appeared at first. In fact, he was coming to the conclusion that they might be dragging their feet. If so, it was his duty as their father to give them a paternal shove along the pathway of their future. They might resent him in the short term, until the wisdom of his insistence became evident, but being a parent meant doing tough things sometimes.

He waited at the base of the stairs. It was a school morning, and that meant either Nabiki or Akane would be coming down, and he could talk to them one-on-one.

It was Nabiki who appeared first. The instant her eyes settled on her father, they narrowed dangerously. "Want to spar some, Daddy?"

Soun involuntarily shuddered. "No need. I'm sure Ranma's doing a fine job of teaching you. No, what I wanted was to discuss your future with you."

"You're leaving me everything with no strings attached?"

Again Soun shuddered. "Ah, no, but if you were to marry Ranma I might consider it." Actually the plan called for whomever married him to inherit the house and dojo, though the two who didn't marry Ranma would be given a little something as well.

"That sounds like a major string to me," Nabiki said.

Soun cleared his throat. It was time to use that wonderful speech he had prepared last night. After hours of planning, he was certain he had the perfect way for his offspring to see things his way. "Now see here, Daughter, Ranma is—"

"Perfect for Akane, if you ask me," Nabiki threw in. "I mean, it's not like my dear little sister is going out with a lot of guys."

"Er, well, that is true," Soun admitted, trying to figure out how to restart his opening monologue.

"And even though it shouldn't be, her little leg problem isn't likely to attract a lot of suitors either."

"Yes, yes, most unfortunate, that. Some people see only the outside of a person instead of their inside," Soun muttered to himself, his thinking processes shifting gears to consider the information Nabiki was mentioning.

"And Ranma is not only the same age as Akane, but I think he's warming up to her. The two get along fine. Note how Akane never accuses him of being a jerk, like she does a lot of guys."

The machinery in Soun's mind clicked into place.

Nabiki prodded her father with her elbow. "You ought to be talking to her about what a perfect couple she and Ranma would make."

Soun envisioned that. Certainly Akane could make Ranma happy, and him the same to her.

"Got to go, but you think about what I said." Nabiki shot down the hall at top speed and out of sight.

Soun pondered the situation. Yes, much of what Nabiki said made sense. Akane would be the ideal wife for Ranma. That settled the matter in his mind. Best to inform Akane of his decision.

He hadn't long to wait as Akane came down the stairs, using her gnarled wooden cane for support.

Soun smiled warmly "Ah, Daughter, how good it is to see you."

Akane stiffened. "What do you want, Dad?"

Soun was hurt. "Can't a father just wish his little girl a nice day?"

"Then this isn't about me marrying Ranma?"

Soun's jaw shut with an audible clack. After a moment, he said, "Well, since you brought it up, I think—"

"It would never work, and you'd be right," Akane said cheerfully. "Kasumi, on the other hand, would be a perfect match for him."

"Well, yes, they would make a fine couple," Soun admitted, trying to figure out how to restart his opening monologue.

Akane nodded sagely. "She already has the whole housewife thing down pat. She doesn't have any plans to further her education. In fact, she's sort of just hanging around the house, helping to take care of us. I don't think it's fair to her to have to keep house for her family. We're holding her back."

"I… never thought of it that way," Soun admitted. Was he keeping his eldest daughter from moving on with her life? What a terrible father he was if that was the case. Although she could cook like a gourmet chef.

"Besides, she hasn't exactly been dating any guys lately. Not good for her at all. If she's not careful, she might become an old maid before she realizes it."

Soun nodded in agreement. Everyone knew that if a woman wasn't married by thirty, she probably never would. Oh, some of the new breed of salarywoman might disagree and claim there was nothing wrong with getting married later on, but it was so… untraditional. And being married later meant less grandchildren. No, it would be for the best for Kasumi to marry long before that. The sooner the better. The biological clock was ticking away.

"Got to go. See you later, Dad." Akane limped off as quickly as she could.

Soun was left to ponder the situation. Yes, much of what Akane said made sense. Kasumi would be the ideal wife for Ranma. That settled the matter in his mind. Best to inform Kasumi of his decision.

Soun walked to the kitchen where his daughter was putting the finishing touches on cleaning up after breakfast. Yes, he was definitely holding her back. Best that she was doing this for her husband. Of course, Ranma would no doubt continue living here, so Kasumi would still be helping out, but now it would be for a good cause.

Soun began. "I have something to discuss with you, Daughter. It concerns marrying Ranma."

Kasumi turned and said, "I know I'm too old for him, Father, I realize that, so you have nothing to fear."

Soun was momentarily taken off track. "Actually, I don't think the age difference is important. After all, your mother was older than me, and it still worked out for us."

"She was two months olderr than you," Kasumi said.

"Er, well, yes, but two months can be a long time," Soun insisted.

Kasumi was unperturbed. "Not to worry, Father. I know the perfect choice: Nabiki."

"Well, actually…"

Kasumi talked on, as though oblivious to her father's attempts to interrupt. "She and Ranma are both very impressive martial artists, and the point of this is to join the two schools."

"Well, yes, that is true," Soun admitted.

"It's a great deal of common ground they share. A cornerstone of a marriage is having common interests, is it not?"

"Yes, yes it is," Soun agreed.

"And a one year difference in age is insignificant, especially between sixteen and seventeen. Why it's no different than if they were the same age."

"True," Soun agreed, though something was tickling at the back of his mind, a feeling of a lack of accomplishment. "Well, in regards to that, daughter, I am concerned about you. While you do a magnificent job of keeping house, it might make you the most suitable to become a wife—"

Kasumi cut him off. "Actually I meant to talk to you about that. I have a job now and will be gone from home frequently."

"What?" Soun said, in shock. "A job? Where?"

"I'm working for Kunou Industries. I'm in their public relations department. It has a very nice salary, but I'm on call a lot and have to leave at unusual times, like right now." She put her apron away and headed for the doorway to leave the kitchen. "There's food in the refrigerator for you and Mr. Saotome. Have a nice day, Father." She gave him a peck on the cheek and headed out, calling back, "Be sure to talk to Nabiki about your decision." There was the sound of a door slamming shut.

"I think I already did," Soun said, wondering exactly what had just happened, and why it felt like he had lost ground instead of gaining it.

xxxxxxxxxxx

"Hey, Akane! Ranchan!" Ukyou shouted, walking daintily up to the pair as they headed to school.

"Hey, Ukyou." Akane felt a pang of envy at just how feminine her friend could appear. She practically made Kasumi look like a guy. Bishonen, maybe, but a guy.

"Yo, Hawkeye," Ranma said.

"Don't call me that!" Ukyou snarled in a decidedly unfeminine way, one that made Akane nearly recoil. There was something horribly wrong about someone so feminine sounding so masculine.

Ukyou caught herself and giggled girlishly. "Sorry. I'm a bit moody today. It's my 'girl time' for me."

"Oh, I see," Akane said.

"What the hell's girl time?" Ranma asked.

Ukyou turned and quivered. "I couldn't possibly talk about that with a boy," she said, voice full of embarrassment.

Ranma could hardly let things go at that. "Hey, it's me, your old buddy Ranchan. You can talk to me however you like. Heck, you used to do it all the time." He turned to Akane. "Hawkeye's got the biggest vocabulary of cuss words ever. I learned them all from her when we were kids. There was this one time we were in the woods and she had to take a dump and she wiped her butt with poison ivy. You should have heard her swearing when she found out. I still don't know half the things she said. Why I—"

"How dare you embarrass me like that, you jackass!" Ukyou leveled Ranma with a punch to the jaw, flattening the huge youth.

Akane looked at Ukyou in near fright. "Really bad time for you."

Ranma rubbed his jaw and stared in shock at his old friend. "That's a heck of a right you have there."

Ukyou went from standing over him in anger to shock. Then she whined, "Owww," and held her hand. "I think it's broken. And I definitely chipped a nail. You're so bad, Ranchan, making me lose my temper like that. And after I forgave you for all the things you put me through, too." She pouted girlishly at him.

"That was all Pop's fault. He explained it to you," Ranma insisted.

Akane stepped between the two. "You have to cut Ukyou some slack, Ranma. Sometimes a girl feels out of sorts when it's, you know, that time?"

"What time?" Ranma asked.

"Of the month," Akane snarled.

"Oh, you mean cramps." He said it in a very cavalier way, one that made both girls stare ominously at him. Mandarin-like ominous.

"I gotta go to class and get stuff." Ranma hurried off. A superhero knew when to strategically withdraw from a situation. In his opinion, when girls were having a period, they were no different than if they were under some super-villain's mind control. Get one angry at you, and it might as well be the Hulk that wanted your hide. And they were only slightly less destructive than the green goliath. Worse, it happened every month.

Once Ranma was out of sight, Ukyou and Akane released their anger at the perceived slight against their gender.

The two continued on toward the school, Akane moving well despite her leg. As they did so, Akane thought about the conversation with her father. Matching Kasumi and Ranma up would be an ideal solution to everything, but there was an increasing risk of Akane somehow ending up with Ranma the longer the fiancée situation continued. Perhaps it would be best if the playing field were diluted a little more. While Akane was confident in her ability to avoid any marriage to Ranma, her father seemed extremely determined about this. The only other time he had been so adamant was about Nabiki learning the art.

Akane turned to Ukyou. "I never asked you about this, but are you interested in becoming Ranma's fiancée again?"

Ukyou was taken aback. After the surprise passed, she considered it. "No, I don't think so. I had a lot of resentment against Ranchan for a long time, and while I'm glad it turned out he wasn't responsible for abandoning me, I've sort of moved past him." Her eyes took on a distant cast. "I'm thinking more along the lines of someone really big and hunky, and very heroic. One of those guys that always tries to go out of his way and do the right thing for others."

"Sounds a lot like Ranma," Akane suggested.

"Oh no, the two are totally different," Ukyou assured her. "The guy I'm thinking of is so heroic, he'd never think of allowing his father to abandon a girl, or allow himself to be tricked into doing it. Although Ranma is about the same size."

"Sounds like you already have someone picked out," Akane said.

Ukyou blushed. "No, no. I'm just saying that's the ideal guy for me. We'd have a lot in common."

"He'd make okonomiyaki?"

"No, he'd be a super…" Ukyou stopped herself. "Super great guy, the way I'm a super great girl. In a feminine way. He'd be masculine. We should get to class." Ukyou made a point of walking fast enough to force Akane to use all of her resources into keeping up with her.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The pair had barely arrived at school and sat in their seats when the school's PA came on. A suave, male voice said in a polite, yet authoritative tone, "All students and teachers are to report to the main auditorium immediately."

Most of the class, including the teachers, looked at one another curiously, but everyone obeyed the order. PAs were the equivalent to the voice of god in a school, and vengeance for disobedience was a lot more certain from the administration than it was from the almighty.

Ranma, Akane, and Ukyou clustered together as they followed the rest of the class toward the auditorium.

"What do you think's going on?" Ukyou directed the question to either one of them.

Ranma shrugged. "Got me." He looked at Akane.

Since Akane was the one who had been at Furinkan longest, she gave her opinion. "Usually they only summon everyone to the auditorium for big events, but I can't think of any that would be around this time of year. Another month and maybe it would be about the sports festival, but now?" She gave the others a blank look.

They let the matter drop. It didn't take long for the class to arrive at the auditorium. It was only half filled when they arrived, though within the next fifteen minutes it was filled to capacity. As everyone milled about, general talk revealed no one knew why there was a meeting, not even the teachers. Speculation ranged from the cafeteria changing from skim milk to whole, to the school being torn down and the students being sent to a dozen other schools.

The crowd began to grow restless when two people finally emerged from backstage. The first was a tall figure dressed in a green skintight outfit. Red and yellow butterfly wings sprouted from the back. The facemask of the figure had compound eyes, and over the nose was a huge, sharp proboscis.

The second figure was considerably smaller than the first, dressed in an orange jumpsuit with red gloves, boots, cowl, and cape. That person wore a belt with several mechanical devices dangling from it. Goggles over the eyes hid the figure's identity, and two slender, artificial-looking antennae sprouted from the cowl.

The winged one was brash in his gait as he walked to the microphone that had been set up on the stage. However, as he went to wield the microphone, his proboscis knocked it over. Cursing, he moved the faceplate of the costume upward, revealing a very handsome male face, bishonen in nature. Several blond locks poked out from underneath the helmet.

The bewildered audience said nothing as he picked up the microphone and tapped it several times, producing uncomfortably loud feedback.

The man said, "Testing, one two. Can everyone hear me?"

A bewildered, "Yes," emanated from the crowd.

"Good. It is my pleasure to inform you that you are now in the hands of the Ouran High School Animal Rights and Host Club. I am the president, whom you may address as the Butterfly. My associate here-- "

At that point his 'associate's' head shook furiously, obviously not wanting to be pointed out.

The Butterfly ignored his companion and performed the introduction. "Is our newest member, the Humbug. Make him feel at home with a round of applause, would you?"

Several people clapped, while Humbug's shoulders slumped in open defeat.

The Butterfly continued. "Now, I must ask forgiveness in being so blunt, but I am afraid circumstances require that all of you are our, I apologize for the brusque term, hostages. You will have to remain so until our demands are met by the Japanese government."

The students stared at the pair in disbelief, uncertain what to make of it. Responses varied from the first vestiges of panic to others dealing with it as a joke.

"What demands are you making?" someone asked.

"Excellent! You show an interest in our cause," the Butterfly said. "We are going to hold you all here until the government of Japan passes several laws regarding the abolishment of the acts of cruelty to animals that pervade this corrupt educational system. First is the elimination of vivisection of animals as part of school curriculums."

A voice said, "Don't you mean dissection? Vivisections are performed on living animals. Dissection is when they're dead."

"Same difference. Being killed so one can be cut open is immoral and wrong, and for all intents and purposes, is the same thing as vivisection," the Butterfly spat.

The students mulled that over. Voices began to speak up.

"I can't say I've ever liked dissecting anything."

"It's gross."

"I could certainly go without cutting open another frog as long as I live."

"I couldn't!" said a student with glazed eyes who looked like he wanted to dissect anyone within arm's reach.

The Butterfly continued. "Also, no more animal mascots. It is offensive and dehumanizing to the noble creatures that are caricaturized in such a fashion."

"Our school's mascot is a pineapple," someone pointed out.

"I wouldn't mind our mascot being 'The Flashers'. It can be an all girls squad."

"Shut up, Daisuke."

The Butterfly cleared his throat. "And no more meat or meat byproducts, such as eggs or milk, are to be served at school lunches."

"All right, no more caramelized fish!"

"Yay! No more mystery meat!"

"No more burned tofu."

"Tofu isn't a meat."

"Crap! Well, I think it should be added to the list anyway."

"What will be served instead?" someone asked.

"Meat alternatives, such as soybean products, wheat gluten, rice burgers, and tofu!"

"Oh god, not more tofu!"

"I've had rice burgers and they taste like crap!"

"What, every day?"

Discussions broke out amongst the students. Eventually one voice shouted, "We're okay on the dissections and animal mascot thing, but we have to refuse on the cafeteria menu changes. Maybe once a week—"

"Alternating Thursdays."

"Once every other week on that, but nothing else."

The Butterfly stared murderously at the crowd. "This is not a negotiation, this is an ultimatum! Do not doubt our will. We are desperate people, caught in desperate times that call for desperate measures. Going through legal channels will result in the deaths of many innocent animals. That is unacceptable. A moratorium must be put in place right now, and this is the only way for it to happen. We of the Ouran Animal Rights and Host Club are the ones to do it. If we are not obeyed, something… bad will happen to all of you."

"How can you be a club if there are only two of you?" someone in the audience asked.

"Ah, now that is a segue if ever I heard one. Gentlemen, introduce yourselves!" the Butterfly said, directing his comment to the ceiling.

In response a quartet of gaudily dressed figures leapt down from the rafters. One was dressed in an orange suit with red flame coloring the majority of it. Like the Butterfly, compound eyes adorned the front, but unlike him, the facemask appeared fixed into place. He landed in front of a set of exit doors. "I am the Firefly." He produced a small amount of fire in the palm of his glove.

A second figure was dressed in a green frog outfit. He landed adroitly, then bounced on springs on the heels of the webbed boots, leaping amongst the crowd without landing on anyone. Eventually his bouncing ended up next to another set of doors, which he stationed himself next to. "And I am the Fabulous Frog Man."

"Weren't you defeated by Daredevil?" someone shouted.

"No, that was an inept bumbler who referred to himself as the Leap Frog."

"Didn't he wear a frog costume just like that? And wasn't his ability jumping around on springs in his feet, just like you?"

"Yes, but I am very different from him."

"In what way?"

He opened the frog mouth of his outfit and pulled the headpiece back, revealing his face. "I'm far more handsome than he was."

The girls within sight of him agreed vocally.

The next ones jumped down as a pair, indistinguishable from one another in outfits which were obviously meant to resemble chickens, save for a lack of feathers. Their headpieces had red flaps, an obvious imitation of a rooster's comb. The fronts of the cowls were shaped like beaks, though their faces could still be clearly seen, showing that the people wearing the outfits were as identical as their costumes.

Ranma slapped his hand to his face as he saw the pair land. "Oh god."

"What is it?" Akane asked.

"I can't believe it. One idiot dressed like a deranged chicken was bad enough. But now there are two of them."

"What do you mean?"

Ranma flinched. "I… ah, saw that guy on the news. Well, one of them. He calls himself the Gamecock. Captain Japan kicked his ass with one blow. Only how the heck did he get out of prison?"

The one on the left, who was in earshot of Ranma's comment, revealed himself as the Gamecock,. "My brother," he pointed to the figure at his side, "the Battling Bantam, broke me out."

Firefly said, "Actually I burned a hole in the wall to his cell and Frog Man bounced out of there with him."

Butterfly looked around curiously. "Where is our seventh member?"

A high-pitched voice in back shouted, "Coming. Using the restroom takes time in this outfit. When we get back, Renge has got to design these things with a zipper for using the facilities." From out of the back of the stage appeared a youth, much younger than the others. He looked like he was about in sixth grade. He was dressed in a full body bear outfit with his cherubic face poking out of the mouth of it.

He leapt off the stage and in front of a group of girls. He posed before them with open arms and said, "I am the Grizzly, the most ferocious member of the Ouran High School Animal Rights and Host Club. Fear me. Grrr."

The girls looked down on him in wide-eyed wonder. One of them finally shouted, "Oh god, he's so adorable!"

"I've never seen anything so cute in my life!

"He looks just like a giant teddy bear!"

"I have to hold him!"

And with that the Grizzly found himself picked up and unceremoniously cuddled by numerous girls, who passed him around like a stuffed animal.

The Grizzly struggled in their grips, but found himself hopelessly overpowered by their sheer numbers. "No, stop! I'm a fierce champion of animal rights, not a plaything!"

The girls persisted. "There's nothing fierce about you. Now let me hug you."

Grizzly began bawling at the top of his lungs. "Tamaki, save me!"

The Butterfly responded with, "Good work, Honey, keep them mollified and entertained. Just because you're a defender of animalkind doesn't mean you should be neglecting your duties as a host."

"But I'm not a giant teddy bear!" Grizzly wailed.

Humbug tugged on one of the Butterfly's wings. "Tamaki?"

"Yes, my sweet Haruhi?" The smile was saccharine sweet enough to send a diabetic into shock.

Humbug looked nervously at the crowd. "First, please don't use my real name. I don't want anyone to know who I really am."

"One day our names shall be shouted triumphantly as the first to usher in an era of equality for all of god's creatures, just as the leader has proclaimed!" He got to work on that prophecy by shouting it out as triumphantly as he could.

Humbug sighed. "And secondly, I want to go home. I shouldn't be here. Not only am I not a super-villain—"

"We are not super-villains. We are super-heroes."

"Super-heroes don't go around holding schools of students hostage," Humbug pointed out.

"We are heroes who go about helping society through unconventional means. The history books will show that," the Butterfly elucidated.

"And I'm not an actual member of your club."

The Butterfly's mood darkened. "I see. And do you have the eight million yen to pay for that vase of ours you broke?"

Humbug's shoulder's slumped in defeat. "No."

The darkness disappeared, and the Butterfly's mood changed to pure effervescence. "Then you'll serve as a member of the club until you work off your debt, and that means helping us out in our noble goal."

Humbug said, "Look, when I agreed to help the club to work off my debt, I didn't mind the whole 'host' thing. I actually like making small talk with girls. I didn't even mind the animal rights thing since I'm against animal testing. But I did not agree to dress up in a ridiculous animal costume and threaten people. What the heck is a humbug anyway?"

The Butterfly tilted Humbug's chin upward and he flashed a dazzling smile. "Only the most beautiful creature in the world, my dear Haruhi."

Humbug remained unmoved, though the same couldn't be said for the majority of girls within earshot who voiced their approval regarding bishonen relationships. Guys within earshot made retching noises.

Toward the center of the milling crowds, the mood was less certain. While there was a certain air of charm about the villainous group, some people were unimpressed by it. Nabiki soon found herself at the center of a cluster of people.

One guy said, "Hey, Tendou, we're paying you a lot of money for protection from these kinds of things."

"Yeah, so protect us," said another girl.

Nabiki scowled. "Sometimes you protect people best by not doing anything."

"But this isn't one of those occasions," someone insisted.

That opinion was shared by the crowd.

Ticked off at not being able to talk her way out of things, Nabiki identified the majority of complainers as people that were indeed paying her protection money (and those that weren't would soon be, since their demands could be interpreted as a solicitation). While she could deal with the neighborhood bully in her sleep, messing with super-villains was something she could live without. Fighting the weirdo mask gang had been enough for her. Next time she drew up a contract for protection services, she was putting in a no super-villain clause. In the meantime, loathe though she was to admit it, honor demanded she live up to her end of the bargains, since refunds were never an option. But she would be very careful in choosing her shots, like when winning was a sure thing. At least most of these so-called animal rights jokers seemed pretty pitiful. Maybe she could take them out.

Slightly toward Nabiki's left. Ranma, Akane, and Ukyou looked around in concern.

Ranma mentally gauged the group. He knew the abilities of the Gamecock and thought it was safe to assume his twin was identical: above average athlete. The Frog Man wouldn't be a problem either if this one had the same abilities as the guy Daredevil fought. Any loser stupid enough to copy one of DD's pathetic rogue's gallery was probably more of a threat to himself than anyone else. The Grizzly might have been worse off than the oversized chickens in his choice of costume.

On the other hand, Firefly looked like he could be dangerous since he seemed to be able to generate flame, especially since Ranma didn't have his shield to protect anyone from stray fire. Butterfly and Humbug were unknowns, though Humbug seemed like he didn't want to be here. In any case Ranma didn't have the vaguest idea of what their abilities were. And if Butterfly was the leader, he might even be the most powerful. Unknowns were hard to deal with. He'd have to wait until he had more information, he was forced into action, or an opportunity presented itself.

While Ranma assessed the situation, Akane had only one thought on her mind: finding some way to get enough privacy to change into Thor. Ten seconds would be all she needed to take care of the lot of them. Unlike the Enchantress and Executioner's attack on the school, these goofballs didn't look the least bit dangerous. The Wasp could probably take them out in about five seconds.

Well, there was a way she could probably get her privacy, but it would mean emphasizing her limp. No one was afraid of a little crippled girl, after all. She hated the idea of playing up her handicap, but she had little choice if it meant rescuing everyone.

"I'm going to see if they'll let me use the restroom," Akane told Ranma and Ukyou.

"Yeah, you do that," Ranma said distractedly, still trying to come up with a plan.

Ukyou was lost in thought as well, staring at Firefly. "I might go after you."

Akane was relieved neither of them volunteered to follow. It would have made things difficult. Since the first part of the plan worked, she felt certain the rest would as well. She headed for the nearest set of doors, ones that were guarded by the amphibious member of the group. Akane limped much more than she usually did, hoping he would lower his guard. "Excuse me, Mr. Leap Frog," she said meekly.

"That's 'Fabulous Frog Man'," he politely corrected.

"Right, Mr. Fabulous Frog Man." She didn't know which was more frightening: that she said it with a straight face or that he could. "I really need to go the lavatory." She squirmed a little.

Frog Man was quite gallant, despite his ridiculous outfit. He said, "Of course. We can hardly hold a room full of hundreds of people captive and not offer them lavatory breaks. Here you go. Put this on." He held out a collar with an oddly-shaped box from some hidden recess in his costume.

Akane looked at the proffered item. "What's that?

"Think of it as a hall pass."

"But what is it?" Akane insisted.

"An explosive collar," Frog Man explained. "We don't have the manpower to escort each person to the restroom, so we use the honor system by attaching these around your neck."

"How is using explosives part of an honor system?" Akane snapped.

"We find people are far more honorable with an explosive device around their neck."

That was a fairly inarguable point.

"Don't worry, as long as you don't leave for more than fifteen minutes, or go more than fifty meters from my control unit, you'll be fine." Frog Man scratched his head. "Or was that fifty minutes and fifteen meters?"

"Nevermind," Akane said. She couldn't chance changing into Thor with an explosive around her neck. The change might trigger it somehow, and she wasn't the Hulk. She might have a godly form, but it couldn't function if she was headless. She instinctively knew that.

While Akane fretted with Frog Man, Ukyou had come up with a plan of her own. There was a gym equipment room that had a door connected to the auditorium. She knew the archery club kept several sets of bows and arrows there. If she could slip into it and grab one, she could put down most of these guys before they knew what hit them. It would probably mean blowing her identity, but there was no way she was risking these idiots hurting anyone just to protect her secret. It would make her life hell if her identity became public, but those were the breaks.

But first, a little information gathering. She walked up to Firefly who appeared to be trying to read a book, and failing miserably.

"Damn compound eyes. The next time I use clear lenses, even if it isn't realistic," he grumbled to himself. He noticed Ukyou approach and closed up the book. "Do you need to use the bathroom?" He went for a collar.

Ukyou turned on her girlish charm, making herself sound somewhat vacuous. "No, I just wanted to compliment you on your costume. It's by far the best out of all of you people."

Firefly bowed. "Why thank you. And might I compliment you on your choice of make-up and hair ribbon. Many girls would have problems with going from merely being cute to overwhelming, but you manage to balance it out in tasteful fashion quite nicely."

"Thank you," Ukyou said sweetly. She could believe these guys were a Host Club. They knew how to turn on the charm without seeming like they were hitting on you. "Are you a mutant?"

"No, I'm not. Not that there's anything wrong with being a mutant," he said neither too quickly nor lacking in any sincerity.

"So your powers are artificial? I'm surprised. I can't see where your fire throwing equipment is."

"Micro-circuitry woven into the fabric, directed out through the gloves. I can explain it in detail if you'd like."

"Ah, no thank you," Ukyou said. She then made a show of looking over her shoulder and feigning concern. "Oh dear, I think one of my friends is about to panic. I'll go calm her down. Once I do, we can talk some more."

"I understand. You go comfort your friend in her time of need," Firefly told her.

Ukyo smiled sweetly and walked toward an acquaintance of hers near the door to the storage room to strike up a conversation as a cover. She'd have to get started fast before something happened to trigger a fight.

Having to move surreptitiously, Ukyou had only made it halfway to the gym room when all hell broke loose in the form of a plaintive cry.

"Why can't I find any panties?!"

All eyes turned to the diminutive form in the center of the auditorium, which had appeared as though by magic.

"Oh crap, it's him!" Ranma groaned.

Happosai scowled at everyone in the auditorium. "Here I was, on a mission of liberation of my precious little darlings from the girls' locker room, when I discovered there were no little darlings to rescue since no one was having gym. It's an outrage. How can I grab some delightful undies if girls are wearing them?"

The members of the Ouran Animal Rights and Host Club stared at him in shock. Being the leader, the Butterfly took control of the situation. "Excuse me, but we're busy conducting a ransom. Could you please move along, you little, whatever you are?"

"Panty thief," Nabiki said acidly.

"That's no way to talk to your elder!" Happosai shouted, then gained a lascivious leer. "But I know a way you can make it up to me, Nabiki, my sweet." He leapt for her.

Nabiki tried to punch him, but Happosai darted out of midair, hit the ground, jumped back up and attached himself to her breasts. He instantly began snuggling them, much to Nabiki's outrage.

Nabiki wasn't the only one, either. The Butterfly shouted, "See here, you repugnant troll, no one should be grasped in such a manner, at least not without encouragement, and she is not encouraging you. Unhand her at once, or else taste the full fury of the Ouran High School Animal Rights and Host Club!" He posed dramatically.

"He's not listening," Humbug said quietly, observing Happosai's efforts to burrow himself into Nabiki's cleavage.

"Hands off the merchandise!" Nabiki shouted, finally getting enough leverage to swat the little pervert off her bosom. The blow sent him flying in the direction of Frog Man.

Happosai rebounded to his feet. He sniffled. "You're a terrible person, hitting an old man like that. Since I'm your master, you should show be some respect."

"I'll do it at your grave, after I put you in it!" She ran at him full force.

Happosai leapt away from Nabiki's attack, springboarding into the top of Frog Man's head. "Can't get me," the old man taunted.

"You're dead!" Nabiki unleashed a full force punch. Happosai jumped out of the way, but the blow landed dead center of Frog Man's face, stunning him.

"I'll get you, you old fart!" Nabiki's kick landed in the Frog Man's gut, making him bellow even through his padding and falling to the ground so he landed on his stomach.

Happosai leapt away, but Nabiki landed a second kick into the Frog Man's back, shattering the equipment that powered his springs. "Come back here, you little shit!"

It took a second for Nabiki's action to register amongst the members of the Ouran Club. The Butterfly shouted, "Hey, she's not attacking that little freak. She's taking out Mori. Get her!"

Gamecock started moving through the crowd. "One side."

"Out of the way," Battling Bantam said, moving alongside his twin.

The two had almost made it to Nabiki when Gamecock felt someone grab him by the back of the cowl and spin him around. "What?"

That was all the offense he got as Ranma punched him square in the chin, knocking him out. "Still got a glass jaw, I see."

"You bastard. You KO'd my brother!" The Battling Bantam began living up to his namesake, flashing off impressive boxing skills as he began throwing punches at Ranma.

The larger youth evaded or deflected all of the blows, eventually landing a punch of his own that connected with the Bantam's face, knocking him out as well.

"Looks like glass jaws can be hereditary." Ranma smirked.

A large pillar of flame burst up, nearly reaching the ceiling. An angry Firefly shouted, "You're going to get it now for attacking the others and standing in the way of our cause." He raised his hands, pointing one at Nabiki and the other at Ranma.

Nabiki was quick to pick up Frog Man and hold him in front of her as a shield, but Ranma froze. Dodging just meant the flame burst would hit someone else in the crowd, and as much as he wanted to, he couldn't bring himself to use either of the morons he knocked out as shields. It was wrong. The smell of burning chicken would haunt him for the rest of his life. There had to be some other way.

An aura of flame surrounded both of Firefly's hands. Just as they became white hot, two wooden shafts seemed to emerge from the villain's wrists. The flames died off as Firefly cried out, "My hands! My hands!"

All eyes turned to see the archer.

Jessie Gurtland lowered her bow.

Ukyou didn't know whether to feel relief at her identity being intact or jealousy over her unspoken rival showing her up.

Toward the front of the crowd, the Grizzly shouted, "I've got to help my friends!"

He tried to lurch forward, but was held back by a horde of teenage girls shouting at him to not do it and stay out of harm's way. Unfortunately for the Grizzly, the exo-skeleton he wore only enhanced existing strength, and since he had so little to begin with, he was easily overpowered by the determination of Furinkan's female populace. All he could do was cry at the indignity of it all.

The Butterfly looked on in horror at how his fellow club members had been decimated. There appeared to be little choice. He had wired explosives through the auditorium in case his demands were not met. It was time to fly off with Haruhi and live up to his end of the threat. He didn't like blowing up people, especially his friends, but no one would take the cause seriously if they didn't follow up on their promises, just like the leader said.

The Butterfly turned to Humbug. "Hop on and we'll get out of here."

"Hop on? Sounds like a great idea."

Unfortunately for the Butterfly, the comment had not come from Humbug, but rather from Happosai, who had perceived it as an invitation to attach himself to Humbug's backside.

Happosai rubbed his face against it. "Not bad, toots. While you don't have much in the way of tits, you sure do have a great bottom."

"Unhand my Haruhi!" The Butterfly raged.

"For a change, I'm inclined to agree with Tamaki," Humbug said in a pained voice,  
"except for the 'my' part"

"But she feels so good," Happosai cooed.

The Butterfly lowered his faceplate and its sharpened proboscis. "You idiot! He's a guy, not a girl."

"Oh no, I'm a girl," Humbug said calmly.

The Butterfly froze up. "What? But it can't be."

"I know my girls. I could smell her femininity from a mile away," Happosai assured him.

"But you dress like a man."

"Actually I dress androgynously. I don't really care what I wear."

"But I've referred to you as a man since the first day we met," the Butterfly said.

"I felt it would be rude to correct you." Humbug shrugged.

The Butterfly began shaking in fury. "You… little… tease! You're just like every woman out there. Trying to take advantage of men."

"Like this?" a female voice said behind him.

The Butterfly turned around just in time to receive a kick to the groin. He wore a cup, which was dented quite deeply. Kicks that could shatter bricks did things like that.

"Yes, exactly like that," the Butterfly squeaked, as Nabiki grabbed him by the proboscis and drove his head into the floor with it.

Weakly, the Butterfly said, "Haruhi, I need help."

"You sure do." She pulled one of the metal cylinders from her belt, aimed at the Butterfly, and pulled the trigger. The sound of insects, amplified a thousand-fold and funneled into a tight sonic beam, knocked Tamaki unconscious.

Haruhi then turned the weapon on Happosai and fired, knocking him senseless as well.

By that time Ranma had made it up to the stage. He would have done it sooner, but it appeared Nabiki had matters well in hand, and there was no sense in risking his secret identity any more than he needed to.

"I take it you're not really with them?" Ranma asked Humbug.

"I was being blackmailed into it," Humbug confirmed. "I tried getting them to stop, but they were…."

"Moronic?" Ranma asked.

"I was thinking more along the lines of 'determined'. In hindsight, moronic might be more appropriate." She shook her head sadly. "I'll be happy to tell the authorities everything I know about the situation, as well as who was giving them orders."

"Oh?" Ranma asked, ignoring the sounds of Nabiki continuing to beat on the Butterfly, complaining about having to make her work for her protection services.

"It was some guy with an animal rights group called the ALF. He's put out a call for all groups with similar ideology to take a more militant stance for animal rights, especially people with super powers."

"Or idiots with them," Ranma added as Nabiki ripped off the Butterfly's wings and held them up as a war trophy.

Humbug continued. "Somehow he found out about the outfits Tamaki had, and contacted him personally. Tamaki invited me along for the meeting. It was some guy called the Man Beast, if you can believe that. He even dresses himself up to look like a wolf man. Pretty convincing costume though. If I didn't know better, I'd swear he was a real animal."

"I see," Ranma said. Current buffoons aside, that sounded like a potential problem. This was a matter he was going to have to look into as an Avenger.

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

End Chapter 


	27. Act III Animal Farm Chapter 3

Avenging Act III, The Animal Farm Chapter 3

Any and all C+C appreciated. You can contact me at: the previous chapters and my other works are stored at:

Larry F's new address at:  
newer works at Mediaminer disclaimer: I don't own any of the Marvel characters or other characters from the numerous animes which are within.

Here's a great reference guide for many character and objects in the Marvel Universe.

Chapter: The Ouran High School Animal Rights and Host Club tried to hold Furinkan hostage, but a plainclothes Ranma, Nabiki, and Jessie Gurtland stopped the group. Also Soun had a failed talk with his daughters in regard to marrying Ranma, and weird happenings at a pharmaceutical company hover over everything.

Writer's forward: These events take place a couple of weeks after the last chapter

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Megumi Ayukawa listened carefully to her drunken 'boyfriend' Ichiro Nikaido. She felt guilty about lying to the research scientist who worked for the same company she did, and even worse about pretending to be his girlfriend, but it was unavoidable. She had only taken the job at Kobayashi Pharmaceuticals because the ALF wanted insiders to let them know what was really going on in regards to their animal testing, and obtain the layout of the facility if a raid became necessary.

Megumi had gleaned a great deal of information from her co-workers over the course of her employment, but Ichiro was a gold mine. Normally he was close-mouthed, but get a few drinks in him and he rambled like no one's business. Once she had won his confidence nothing was held back. She probably knew more about him than he did. She felt sorry for leading him on and implying she was nearing the next stage of their relationship, but there was no way she was sleeping with him even in her role as a mole. She was a loyal member, but even a cause had to have some sort of limits. She would continue to milk him for every bit of inside information she could, and once he ran out, or pressed her too hard, she'd come up with some reason to break up with him. She'd make it his fault, of course. Like all men, he'd slight her somehow and she'd use that as the convenient excuse. Nerds or studs, men were still men and cut from the same cloth.

Lately, though, she'd had some problems with her job. Not the one with the company, but rather with the ALF. She didn't care one bit for the recent change in tactics her organization had been employing. Now that the Man Beast was calling the shots, they had become positively militant, going far beyond the rescues they had performed in the past. They weren't simply freeing animals from laboratories or the food factories called farms, they were putting the torch to the buildings as well. There were frequent beatings of the people at the facilities, beatings that put them in hospitals. And that was only the tip of the iceberg. There were even rumors circulating that a group of super-powered beings, operating under Man Beast's orders, had tried to hold a school hostage until animal protection laws were passed. While Megumi was all for freeing animals from their bondage, and ending the barbaric tradition of eating their flesh, this new wave of violence left a bad taste in her mouth. A number of her friends in the ALF had already left the organization, and more were seriously considering it. She found herself having a crisis of faith with the group she had joined so eagerly back in college.

But now something Ichiro had said made her blood boil, eradicating the doubt she had for her organization. Apparently not only was the company secretly experimenting with bio-weapons (something nearly as deplorable as slaughtering animals), but they were in the middle of conducting animal experiments with the weapons and having 'amazing results' in the trials. She shuddered to think of how many animals were being slaughtered by the hour in the blood-drenched labs of the company.

No matter what reservations she might have with the path the ALF had taken, that was unforgivable. She was contacting her superiors now and alerting them to this danger so they could take action against these evil people and show them what it meant to butcher the innocent.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Man Beast strode through the halls of the ALF's latest temporary secret headquarters. The old building was a bit run down with numerous problems, but it didn't matter. Man Beast was never one for gaudy trappings. Mansion or slum, it meant nothing to him. What he cared about was achieving his goals. Everything else was useless window dressing.

And that was the reason he had become frustrated. Few of his goals had been achieved thus far. While chaos was being seeded through society, it was not producing the effect he desired. Having his minions going around burning down buildings was fine, but it lacked the scale he needed. Oh, they were gathering a good bit of media attention now, publicizing their cause. No doubt the chaos he was fermenting would grow over the ensuing months, but it felt too much like he was trying to bring down an elephant by giving it paper cuts.

What Man Beast really wanted to further his agenda were super-powered beings to rally to his cause. They would cause destruction mere normal humans could never hope to match. But his few SPB resources were pitiful, and the capture of the Ouran group, incompetent though they were, dwindled their ranks to almost nothing. While Man Beast had located a number of appropriate incarcerated individuals who would bolster the ranks of his Ani-Men, securing them would be a bit of an undertaking as well, and there was always a chance they would refuse him even after he freed them. He had discovered that insect man from South America who was on his way to Japan right now. That one had potential to cause mass chaos about the country. But Man Beast wanted more. Perhaps engineering a breakout was the best plan, even if he had to divert more resources than he cared to. Short term pain for long term gain was a good motto, but it was better if someone else was enjoying the pain while he focused on the gain.

Man Beast was considering the best way to go about it when Shinjiro approached him. With animal senses far more acute than any human's, Man Beast could see the worry in his step, the concern in his scent. It wasn't panic, but something had upset him.

That would be easy enough to deal with. Once Shinjiro arrived at his side, Man Beast spoke in a soft, yet powerful voice that hinted at nothing but control. "Yes, Shinjiro, my friend?"

Shinjiro bowed deeply. "I have troublesome news, Sir."

While a part of Man Beast was eager to kill the messenger, the higher functions of his evolved brain enlightened him of the foolishness of the action. Never in history had killing the messenger ever brought anything other than disaster on those who used it. Now, if Shinjiro proved to be the cause of the problem, he'd be lying in a pool of his own blood within seconds. "Do go on."

"I'm afraid our new militant stance has met with a great deal of criticism." While Shinjiro's voice was firm, indicating he had no problems with their actions, he was concerned about what he was reporting.

"Whenever there is change, there are those who would criticize it, even if it is change for the better," Man Beast said wistfully.

"Er, yes. Well, it's not just criticism. While I wholeheartedly approve of our new methods, many among our ranks have rejected it."

This was becoming tiresome. "I have been to the meetings where those concerns were voiced," Man Beast said. And he had refrained from killing those that dared speak against him. Barely at times, but he had. Small term pain for long term gain.

Shinjiro shifted nervously from foot to foot. "Yes, well, I think we underestimated just how unpopular the policy is. I added up the numbers, and nearly forty percent of the membership has quit outright, while another twenty to twenty-five percent seem like they might quit as well."

"Bah," Man Beast snarled. "Those are the lowest form of human. Though they espouse our ideals as their one true faith, ask of them the smallest sacrifice, the tiniest of risks, and they run off with their tails between their legs, if they had the decency to have tails. At least our enemies are open in their resolution for killing my kind, I have a certain degree of respect for their honesty, but to have these weak-willed fools claim they believe in our cause, but are unwilling to risk anything to achieve it, makes me want to… retch." What he had wanted to say was personally rip out their throats with his teeth, but some restraint had to be maintained. And maybe he could indulge himself from time to time by killing one that was particularly bothersome.

Man Beast continued. "Perhaps it is for the best. This way we can winnow out the pathetic from the strong. We do not need these weak-willed fools amongst our ranks. It is far better this cancer is removed from the movement altogether, lest they bring it down with their simpering and unwillingness to put their lives on the line like true believers, such as yourself." And moderate elements would only weaken them. Ideally he would prefer to use them as sacrificial pieces, but if they took themselves off the board, so be it.

"Yes, sir," Shinjiro preened with fanatical devotion, indicating which side of the fence he was solidly on. "There's one other thing you might be interested in. It's from one of our moles and just came in." He handed a manila folder.

Man Beast opened the folder up. A smile crossed his snout, a toothy thing that disrupted even Shinjiro's delight. Man Beast took no note as he read the words and the implications they presented.

He looked over at Shinjiro. "Round up our elite troops. I will be leading this operation personally. This travesty must not come to pass. Those animals must be rescued before disaster strikes."

"Yes, sir!" Shinjiro turned on his heel and ran off at top speed.

Xxxxxxxxx

"Damned bitch, always one-upping me. Well, not this time. I'll show her what a real anchorman can do by getting the scoop," Toji Yamamoto grumbled to himself as the news van he was in drove at a reckless speed toward the coastline.

The cameraman in the back with him said, "Um, sir, isn't it dangerous to approach an area with an unknown situation like this?"

Toji turned on him in fury. "That bitch Akemi is always getting the scoop with her 'super hero exclusives.' Well, I'm getting one up on her. Just you watch, not only will I prove that I'm the number one newsman in all of Japan, but that she's so inferior to me the boss will have no choice but to bust her back down to cub reporter." That would teach the frigid bitch to mind her place. And to refuse to sleep with him.

"But the owner himself assigned you to cover the conference that Mr. Comrade guy's holding. They say he's going to announce his plans to launch a satellite system that will revolutionize communication."

"It'll put everyone to sleep! This is a sexy story. 'Insect Invasion Sweeps Japan! Newsman Toji Yamamoto First on the Scene to Break the Story. Then Wins Pulitzer Prize!' Now that's a headline!" He thanked his foresight in having a source in the JSDF that had tipped him off to the bizarre phenomenon and where it was projected to make landfall.

The cameraman gave up and accepted his superior's decision. He checked over his equipment as they continued racing at top speed.

It only took them another five minutes to arrive at the seashore. Even from the beach it was clearly visible-- a vast cloud of some type of insect that was massed only a few miles off shore. And getting closer. The van pulled up on the beach, and Toji and the cameraman got out of the vehicle. The cameraman raced to get his equipment in place while Toji combed his hair. They were supposed to meet the make-up people at the conference, but sometimes one had to improvise.

Within minutes everything was set up. As they went to a live feed, Toji gave his most winning smile for the camera and began.

"Ladies and gentlemen. I, Toji Yamamoto, bring you live, firsthand coverage of a mysterious swarm of insects that are heading for Japan. What is their purpose? What could be driving them to our fair island nation? Is it punishment from the gods, sending a horde of locusts to consume our foods? Have we overindulged in picnics, as some have theorized? Or is it a natural phenomenon that happens only once in a century? Is it… bees?"

Toji looked curiously as several bees began buzzing around his head. He swung his hand at them, trying to swat them from the sky. Their aim proved truer than his as he found himself the recipient of a sting.

He recoiled in pain and shouted, "Ah! Killer bees! It's killer bees! We're all going to die!" He shrill shout was like that of a little girl as he ran into the van and shut the door behind him, locking it.

The cameraman, camera still rolling, began pounding on the door. "Hey, Man, let me in! There's bees all over the place."

"No!" Toji cried hysterically, his terrified face clearly seen behind the glass.

The cameraman froze, hoping that if he went motionless, the bees wouldn't attack him. On the upside, his luck held as they didn't sting him, content to treat him like a rock. On the downside, it quickly became obvious that the number of bees was steadily increasing. The air became thick with the flying insects as the swarm drew closer to shore, revealing a miles-long cloud of the insects.

Emerging from the front of the cloud was what appeared to be a man. Training came to the fore as the cameraman focused on the figure. The telescopic lens revealed a being dressed in a billowing purple cape, white gloves, and boots. That was all it wore, save for the fact every other inch of him was covered in bees.

In a voice that was more of a buzz, the figure shouted in English, "Zzzwarm has come to your nation, as the One invited him. But the One doezz not control Zzwarm. Zzwarm will kill all of you mammalz and rule over the landzz."

It was at that moment the sky suddenly filled with dark, ominous clouds. Lightning began dancing among them as a torrential downpour erupted. The drops were so plentiful and thick, and the winds so fierce, that the bees found themselves hammered to the ground.

The cameraman breathed a sigh of relief, then heard the sounds of a jet engine directly overhead. He turned his camera upward and caught the twin sights of Thor and Iron Rose flying past him and directly at the figure that called himself Swarm.

"Varlet, thou shalt feel the righteous anger of the Goddess of Thunder!" Thor promised as she headed directly at him, hammer leading the way.

"Let's see what a wide-angle repulsor blast does to his insectile epidermis." Iron Rose raised her hands, two cones of repulsors shooting out, engulfing Swarm's entire body. He cried out in pain as bees were literally blown away from his frame. His body grew smaller until bones could clearly be seen underneath. Bones and nothing else.

"This being is not even truly alive!" Thor declared, aiming right at him.

She impacted with the nearly naked skeleton, shattering it into hundreds of pieces. As the shattered bones fell into the ocean, the miles-long body of insects Swarm had led seemed to lose cohesion, flying mindlessly everywhere. Soon all of the insects were hammered from the sky and drowned in the ocean, save for a scant few who made it to shore and survived.

Thor and Iron Rose landed on the shore. The goddess tapped her hammer on the ground, and the clouds disappeared as quickly as they had come.

Iron Rose picked up one of the fallen bees from among the dunes. While it was extremely large, it didn't try to sting her. Instead it wandered around her palm, as though drunk. She idly noted others on the sand doing the same thing.

"Hmm. While I'm no entomologist, I would surmise that no matter how dangerous these things might be, without that Swarm thing controlling them they lack purpose and direction. Hopefully they'll simply die off, or be made extinct by the indigenous insect population."

Thor nodded. "In any case, there is nothing within our power to go beyond what we have already accomplished. The villain is destroyed and our country safe."

It was at that moment both of the Avengers' communicators went off. Thor pulled her communi-card out of her belt, while a portion of the armor around Iron Rose's gauntlet pulled back to reveal an inbuilt device that served the same function.

A picture of Captain Japan's face appeared on the tiny screen. "Hey, guys, I'm calling a meeting to talk about some things."

"I shall be there momentarily, Captain," Thor said.

Iron Rose responded with, "Is it an urgent matter? There is an important meeting my employer needs to attend, and she desires my bodyguard services. If you truly need me, of course I shall come flying to your side. But if not…?"

"Nah," Captain Japan assured her. "We're just going to put our heads together and try to figure out what to do about this guy. It ain't nothin' urgent. You go ahead and do whatever your boss wants. If anything comes up we'll let you know."

Iron Rose nodded in satisfaction. "Very well. I trust your judgment. As it is, I must go now." She shut down her communication device and took off while Thor flew away in nearly the opposite direction.

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

Kodachi Kunou had arrived at Kobayashi Pharmaceuticals early, giving her plenty of time to remove her armor and collapse it into the attaché case that was nearly as much a part of her as her arm. The final papers had been signed earlier that morning and the buyout completed. She was now the majority stockholder, and officially in charge. While she had allowed her attorneys to deal with the transaction, she wanted to personally talk things over with the heads of the departments. The company had done well for itself, but she wanted the inside scoop on its experimental research. She had always possessed a fascination with chemicals, even if her degrees were all in mechanical engineering and its related fields. But she had always a dream she had told no one. Before she died, she wanted to be known for curing some sort of disease. Not at the cost of ruining her company, though. She'd do it responsibly. She owed it to the people whom she employed, as well as her shareholders.

Which was why she was having these meetings with the men. She was not about to start running around changing the way the company was run, at least not without understanding how they were run first, as well as knowing the full assets of the company.

Kodachi had already met with the president and most of the board of directors. Now it was time to meet personally with the heads of the divisions. She was most eager to look into the research division. That was why she was in the middle of a conversation with the head, Onimaru, and a handful of his department aides. She noted the aides seemed to act not just subservient, but almost slavishly toward their head. She didn't care for that sort of attitude. One's subordinates tended to tell them what they wanted to hear rather than the truth. More than one business had been ruined by such a mentality, and Kodachi had no desire to fail for such mindless reasons. Or fail at all for that matter.

They were nearly finished with the tour when one of the subordinates cleared his throat in a meaningful way. It was obviously a prearranged reminder of some sort. Kodachi allowed them to play their little game without comment. There was no need to show them up. She was above such petty power games, unless they got on her bad side, of course. Then all bets were off. They could ask Asuka Saginomiya if they wanted proof.

Onimaru cleared his throat nervously. "Now that I think about it, there is something I should mention. It's something that wasn't listed in our documentation due to its… recent nature. Quite by accident we made a remarkable discovery."

"Oh?" Kodachi said, sincerely interested in why he had felt the need to sit on this information until now.

"Yes, one of our researchers was interested in a novel approach to cure cancer. He wanted to use a genetically tailored virus that would attack any form of cancer. Ideally, children could be inoculated against cancer the way they are against polio or tetanus."

"Fascinating," Kodachi said. That sounded promising. A cure for cancer was exactly what she was looking for. Had they made a breakthrough just as she had bought the company? It would be a dream come true. Too good to be true, given the track record of her life, she thought as she scratched idly at her newly forged micro-thin chestplate that now covered her body, including the delicate circuitry that kept the piece of shrapnel in her chest away from her heart.

"Yes," Onimaru said. "However, the research took an unexpected turn." He looked nervously at one of his aides before continuing. "A strain of it had an unanticipated side-effect. While the virus does indeed consume cancer cells, destroying them as it reproduces, it doesn't stop there. It keeps going, destroying all organic matter, except the bones, while using the matter to reproduce itself."

"That's some side-effect," Kodachi said. "Is there any sign that you might reign it in to only destroy the cancer, or does it appear unsalvageable?"

"At the moment, it appears as though it won't be useful as a cure for cancer. We've altered it in many ways, but the results are always the same. Though interestingly enough, it only affects humans and simians. No other animals. However, that might be a benefit."

"In what sense?" Kodachi asked.

"We thought, given your interest in the weapons industry, that you might be interested in using it as a potential bio-weapon. We'd have to make it less communicable, of course, and it's much too virulent in its current form, which is why we buried it in our most secure labs, but we're certain that given enough time we can produce a viable weapon strain."

Oh, that was what this was all about. How disappointing. "No, I have no interest in biological weapons. You can halt research on it now. If you can't tailor it to only destroy cancer, abandon it." She intensely disliked bio-weapon technology of any kind. She preferred precision weapon systems that went only where you wanted, killed only as many as you wanted, and stopped then and there. Biological weapons were too indiscriminate, and too difficult to control. One mutant strain of that virus and humanity could be wiped out.

Just as Kodachi had finished giving her instruction there was an explosion several floors below them. All but Kodachi were nearly knocked off their feet, and even she nearly fell over. "What was that?"

Onimaru looked panicked. "I'm not sure. There aren't any labs below us. I can't figure out what it is." He looked like he wanted to bolt.

That was a bad sign. Kodachi turned to the men and said, "You should seek safety. I have to alert my bodyguard." Kodachi ran off, attaché case with her armor in hand. It appeared it was time for Iron Rose to earn her pay.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Man Beast allowed himself to be surrounded by his Ani Men and Overrrider as a sort of honor guard as he walked through the headquarters of Kobayashi pharmaceuticals, ruler of all he surveyed. So far the securing of the building had gone on without a hitch. The operation had been fairly simple. Three dozen of his elite, and most reliable, ALF troopers, armed with AIM weaponry, had pulled up in a trio of vans and stormed the building, stunning the handful of security guards that had been too startled to put up any resistance. Man Beast and his small group of SPBs followed leisurely behind, as a reserve if necessary. But it hadn't been. His men had secured the first floor and were already storming the other floors. Soon the building would be completely under his control.

Making sure none of the rank and file were within earshot, Man Beast turned to Overrider. "Once we get to their main computer banks, I want you to locate the primary objective and all the material on it."

Overrider nodded her acceptance.

"Why don't I tag along and make sure the babe isn't interrupted?" Tabur, the Cat Man, offered, a lascivious gleam in his feline eyes.

"You'll stay with us, or I'll make it so you don't every worry about women again," Man Beast warned.

"Of course," Tabur said smoothly.

Just as the cat man moved back into position with his group of fellow Wundagorians, the floor erupted underneath them, scattering them in all directions.

As the group recovered, they saw a figure in black and grey armor in their midst, having shot up through the floor.

Iron Rose said, "Gentle… animals, I feel I must warn you that my employer is most vexed. She completed the purchase of this company just today and now you've gone and attacked it. While the damage is covered by insurance, the premiums are simply going to go through the roof. So be a good barnyard menagerie and give up before I am forced to become violent with you."

Man Beast said to Overrider. "Go to the computers and complete your mission." To the rest of his Ani Men, he bellowed, "Kill her!"

Frog Man attacked first, literally leaping into action. He aimed his feet so they were pointed right at Iron Rose's head.

Behind her faceplate, Iron Rose rolled her eyes. A Leap Frog wannabe? What was it about that particular villain that compelled others to emulate him? He was a complete loser, managing the bottom tier of Daredevil's pathetic rogues' gallery of villains.

The iron-clad Avenger was content to allow him to bounce off her, probably hurting himself in the process. Then she would launch her counterattack.

Then Iron Rose discovered that the best laid of plans did not always work out the way one counted, especially when one thought her foes were simply costumed individuals rather than genuine animal men.

Frog Man's legs were far more powerful than any human's. When he impacted with Iron Rose's head, he hit with incredible force, making her head ring and sending her pinwheeling backward. She was so off-balance that she fell prey to the surprisingly nimble Ape Man, who punched her hard in the chestplate. The powerhouse of the team didn't simply knock her backward, he sent her flying like a missile through the air.

Her flight was abruptly stopped as Cat Man snagged her out of mid-air with his feline reflexes and used his super strength to add to her momentum as he swung her into the floor, shattering it.

Slowly Iron Rose staggered to her feet arms held out to fire her repuslors. She wasn't aiming at anything as much as she wanted to get a second wind. She hoped by firing randomly she could buy herself a few moments to reorient herself.

She wasn't given a chance as she found herself grabbed under the arms and lifted up into the air before she could fire. She looked and saw two people with wings, one similar to a bird while the other resembled an insect woman, were carrying her in mid-air. Before she had a chance to shrug them off, they made sudden twists in flight that could only be accomplished by someone who was born to soar. Iron Rose was once again sent flying, hitting a wall hard. It was thick metal, denting but not breaking as she bounced off it and to the ground.

The quartet of blows had knocked Iron Rose silly for a moment, but she had been in difficult combat before, though perhaps not against such a diversity of foes. Still her armor was state of the art, and built to take even the inhuman punishment that had been administered to her. Her foes also made the mistake of backing off for a moment to enjoy their handiwork, relaxing as they obviously felt they had the upper hand.

Now that she had gained a precious moment to recover her wits, Iron Rose rose up from her fallen position, ready to retaliate.

"She's a tough one," Bird Man said.

"I'll take care of her," Dragonfly's pale, pupil-less eyes widened, taking on a yellow gleam. "Look into my ey—"

Her request ended as a repulsor blast knocked her out of the air, along with Bird Man.

The remainder of the group took on a more serious air. "Crap, she's still kicking," Cat Man swore.

"I'll show her what kicking is all about." Once again Frog Man launched himself feet first at Iron Rose.

She was prepared this time, sidestepping the midair flight and snagging him by the front of his yellow uniform.

Frog Man looked into the facemask of Iron Rose. He saw her narrowed eyes behind the slits. "Aw, crap."

Iron Rose threw Frog Man like a fastball at Cat Man. Tabur tried diving out of the way, and managed to avoid the worst of the blow, but enough of Croaker bounced off him to send him to the ground.

Ape Man started to move forward. "Gort will kill-"

Man Beast placed a restraining hand on Ape Man's shoulder. "I shall take care of this personally."

For a moment a war waged across Ape Man's features, but seeing the look on his leader's face made even him cringe and back off. The remainder of the stunned Ani Men also backed away, allowing their leader to spearhead the second wave of attacks.

Iron Rose sensed the seriousness of the situation, but was confident in her ability to handle the newcomer, who appeared to be some type of wolf man. By now she had come to the realization that these were real humanoid animals, not merely people in costumes. Still, how powerful could a wolf man be compared to power armor loaded to the brim with the most advanced technological weapons?

He stopped several feet in front of her.

"And your name is Wolf Guy? Flea Bag? Doggie Bomb?" Iron Rose asked.

He stared at her emotionlessly. "Man Beast."

"Well, Man Beast. What is it you can do? Piddle on my leg to make me rust?"

"Oh, I think I can come up with something."

And Man Beast smiled.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

A ring of police cars had just started to form outside when Iron Rose's limp form shot through a wall and outside the building. Her trajectory continued unimpeded as she struck a building across the street and shattered a number of walls there before ending up in the middle of it. She didn't emerge from the wreckage.

The policemen stared at the holes in the two buildings.

One officer looked at another. "I think we'd better wait for backup."

His partner nodded his head.

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

End Chapter

Swarm was the 'Insect Man' Man Beast had recruited to come to Japan. The individual Swarm mentioned was Man Beast, in case that wasn't clear.

Sorry for the short nature of this chapter, but this felt like a good place to end it, and something bad happened which brought me down, which is currently killing my mood to write more until the matter can be taken care of. Depending on how large the next one is, I might just merge it with this one. Anyway, thanks for reading. 


	28. Act III Animal Farm Chapter 4

Avenging Act III, The Animal Farm Chapter 4

Any and all C+C appreciated. You can contact me at: the previous chapters and my other works are stored at:

Larry F's new address at:  
newer works at Mediaminer disclaimer: I don't own any of the Marvel characters or other characters from the numerous animes which are within.

Here's a great reference guide for many character and objects in the Marvel Universe.

chapter: After defeating Swarm, Iron Rose headed to her new acquisition, only to discover the Man Beast and his Ani Men already there. After a brief fight, Iron Rose was defeated as Man Beast began his insidious scheme

xxxxxxxxxx

"…judging from what Humbug said, and if those Host Club losers are any indication, this Man Beast guy is up to no good. Apparently he's some animal rights loon that's calling for likeminded nutjobs to rise up and cause trouble."

After finishing his speech, Captain Japan surveyed the table which held all of the Avengers, save the absent Iron Rose. The diverse group of heroes were listening intently, although who knew if the Hulk was following the conversation, or was just staring at the captain as though he was still trying to figure out if he should smash him for reminding him of some nearly forgotten enemy.

Giant Man, at his normal height despite the oversized chair that had been offered to him (and was very uncomfortable because of the size mismatch), cleared his throat to gain the others' attention. "I've noticed a rise in acts of violence lately, many of them against research facilities, farms, and other places that animals are kept."

Hawkeye nodded. "Seems like every night there's another story on the news about that rash of animal rights violence. I was planning on bringing it up, but it looks like you took the words out of my mouth, Cap." While another might have sounded irritated at being headed off in that way, Hawkeye's reaction was to smile warmly at the man in question, warm enough to make Captain Japan uneasy and Daredevil glad he wasn't the target of the archer's romantic interest.

"So what should we do to the varlets?" Thor asked, standing imperiously before the group and looking like she wanted to smash something.

Wasp answered, "We hunt down this Man Beast person, since it's obvious from his name he's some sort of super-villain, and beat him up. And we also beat up anyone who's following his orders." She sounded like she was even more eager than Thor.

Giant Man stared at Wasp. His voice was full of hope as he suggested, "Or talk him into giving himself up to the proper authorities."

"Like against the Serpent Society?" Wasp asked, a bit testy at the perceived attempt to ruin her fun.

That definitely caught the Hulk's interest. "Hulk doesn't like snakes. If there are snakes, Hulk will smash."

Wasp flew over and landed on the green goliath's shoulder. "See? The Hulk agrees with me." She kissed him on the cheek, making the Hulk blush and Giant Man come close to openly crying.

"Anyway," Captain Japan interrupted, retaking control of the conversation, "we're in agreement that, for a change, we'll try and stop this guy before he launches some kind of scheme to take control of the country or something. Right?"

It was at that moment the Avengers' faithful butler (nee ninja) Sasuke, burst into the room, shouting, "Master Avengers! Master Avengers! Turn on the television. There's something I think you should see."

Captain Japan touched a button. A small section in the center of the table retracted. From within the table arose a thick metal column with several view-screens, each pointed in a different direction that allowed everyone surrounding the table to watch the same thing without having to move from their seat.

It took the hero a second to set it to the channel Sasuke indicated. The view-screens flickered to life, showing the visage of anchorwoman Akemi Shutaro outside a business building located in the heart of Tokyo.

"…saying that the animal rights group known as the Animal Liberation Front has seized control of the headquarters of Kobayashi Pharmaceuticals, which had recently been purchased by Kunou Enterprises. Witnesses say an armed force of masked people, led by some sort of men and one woman dressed as various animals, stormed the building and seized control of it, taking everyone inside hostage. The Avenger, Iron Rose, attempted to stop the takeover, but was herself defeated in spectacular fashion. We have no word yet on whether Kodachi Kunou, the owner and president of Kunou Enterprises, is among the hostages, though the presence of her bodyguard raises the question. Kunou Enterprises has refused to comment on the situation. I--."

Akemi held a hand to her earpiece. After a few moments, she said, "I've just been informed that the leader of the ALF has released a video, apparently some prerecording, listing his demands. We will show it to you in its entirety right now."

The screen shifted, a logo of Channel 4 appearing in the lower corner. In front of an ostentatious podium was Man Beast, dressed in a formal business suit that was a stark contrast to the animal head poking out of the top.

He said in a pleasant, though firm voice, "Greetings, citizens of Japan. My name, not one of my choosing, I assure you, is Man Beast. Let me begin by offering my apologies for what is undoubtedly an interruption in your daily newscast. I am afraid that forces beyond my control have forced me to take extreme measures, for which I am deeply sorry. I have seized control of the Kobayashi Pharmaceuticals building as a protest against the deplorable and barbaric slaughter of poor, innocent animals whose only crime was to not be born human; a crime that I myself have suffered from. The steps we have taken today are a protest against this sort of cruel, inhumane treatment. However, let me assure you our intention is not to harm anyone, and so long as we are left alone, no one will be hurt. Aside from the obvious steps of freeing these animals held hostage in this building, where they were awaiting prolonged, torturous deaths, this is to serve as a statement against future acts involving this sort of uncivilized behavior. Our intention is to harm no one, however any attempt to retake the building before we are ready to give it up will result in a battle, one in which I cannot guarantee the safety of all involved. There are a number of concerns we wish the government to discuss, while we of the ALF continue to retain control of this building as a message of the seriousness of our desires to open a dialogue whereby everyone might arrive to a satisfactory conclusion."

As the telecast continued with Man Beast issuing his demands, Captain Japan looked at everyone seated at the table. "Well, so much for that idea."

Xxxxxxxxxx

It was a matter of minutes for the Avengers to board their quinjet, Captain Japan grumbling the whole time about bad guys who didn't know anything about timing. As they did so, a figure emerged from its hiding place and followed them. It flitted between the few shadows offered in the small flight hanger with a preternatural ability, one so impressive that it allowed no one to see it, or sense it, in Daredevil's case.

Slit pupils watched intently as the boarding ramp folded up. While it wanted to jump on then, it could not risk it. Preoccupied though the Avengers were, there was too much a chance of detection, and its presence could not be revealed just yet. While it could have remained in Avengers mansion –their security was pitiful, as was the bumbling would-be ninja that served as their butler— this might be a golden opportunity to complete its mission, especially if the Avengers began to lose in their upcoming conflict.

A smile revealed inhumanly sharp teeth at the idea of things being so easy.

Instead of trying to sneak in the back, it bounded up to the landing gear, then hid inside. It would be a tight fit, and likely to be very cold as the quinjet traveled at incredibly fast speeds, but it could endure a little wind and cold to achieve its goal.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

In the main research lab of Kobayashi Pharmaceuticals, Man Beast stood before a large bank of computer terminals, appearing as though he owned the world. Flanking him were his most important feline minion, Tabur, and his most important human one, Shinjiro Hikami. Rounding out the quartet was Overrider, sitting at the main computer terminal.

Man Beast watched her with rapt attention. Overrider's hand was literally inside the screen, words and numbers flashing by at a rate so quickly even Man Beast's highly evolved intellect couldn't follow. That and her hand was in the way. Overrider didn't seem concerned in the slightest as she continued to sit nearly motionless, data scrolling past in a blur.

"Well?" Man Beast asked her impatiently.

Overrider turned her head slightly. The solid fishbowl-shaped helmet, with only one-way red-covered eye slits, made it impossible to tell her emotions. Her voice reverberated slightly within her helmet. "Culture 1201 is here, and according to the test data, it works exactly as we were informed. But it's stored in their most secure bio-hazard vault. They have it covered by as many protective programs as they could find, to the point of paranoia. It'll take me a while to get through all of their protection systems before I can get the entry codes to their vault. They really didn't want to risk this thing getting out."

"We could try a brute force approach," Cat Man suggested.

"It's a 'safe room'," Overrider said. "If its integrity is compromised in any way, special standalone incinerators inside the room will superheat it to a thousand degrees, destroying everything inside. Getting the access codes is the only way to safely remove Culture 1201."

"Someone must know what the code is," Tabur insisted.

Overrider said, "When we set off the security systems when we stormed this place, the code was automatically randomized. No one can get inside until a new set of codes are created tomorrow and someone with authorization can read them. No one but me."

"How long?" Man Beast asked in a near snarl.

"A half hour. Two at the most, then Culture 1201 will be yours," Overrider said.

"And then justice will finally be meted out." Man Beast appeared ready to jump out of his fur in anticipation.

"What is Culture 1201 anyway?" Shinjiro said, finally finding an opportunity to make his presence known. He had felt left out since the beginning of this whole operation, and he was supposed to be the Number Two man in the organization. What good was that if his leader wouldn't trust him with important information, like what the heck they were doing?

The interruption made Man Beast turn on him in fury, making even Shinjiro gulp. There were times when his new leader scared him, he was ashamed to admit. Such doubts made Shinjiro feel like he was a failure in some ways. Humans were more frightening than any animal, even if Man Beast's unusual half-man, half-animal state blurred the lines slightly.

Anger remained on Man Beast's features for a moment, then passed as an eerie sort of calm settled over him. "You've done so much for me, I suppose you're entitled to an explanation. Culture 1201 was initially started as a cure for cancer. A virus that was intended to go after cancer cells, and kill them, thus serving as a cure for cancer. Culture 1201 does indeed do that, attacking them with a vigor that's nearly unbelievable. But after it's finished with the cancer cells, it moves on to the healthy ones, literally devouring the flesh from the bones. It's an airborne virus as well, so it's easily transmitted."

Shinjiro blanched. "That's… that's hideous. But I'm not surprised. KP has all the earmarks of a secret member of the military industrial complex, especially after they were bought out by a weapons manufacturer like Kunou Enterprises. I wouldn't be surprised if the government secretly commissioned them to work on bio-weapons, as well as working on medicine that only attack symptoms of the disease, rather than curing them. It's a brilliant plan. We can blow the whistle on this company when we go public with our findings, and they can't deny it since we'll have actual physical samples of the virus."

"Oh, I intend to go public with the virus, all right," Man beast said, amused.

Shinjiro nodded eagerly. "We'll score major points with the public for blowing the whistle on this conspiracy. And those animals that died during the testing of this depraved experiment will be avenged."

Man Beast smiled his toothy grin. "Actually, no animals were harmed in the testing of the virus on any level."

Now Shinjiro was more confused than ever. "They didn't test it on animals?"

"Oh no. They tested it on animals. Every kind they could get their hands on. However, the scientist who engineered the virus originally tailored it to work exclusively on humans, and even this strain only works on them. Oh yes, and primates. Apparently they are genetically similar enough to humanity to be harmed by it. But other animals? No, no ill effects on any other species. They can't even function as carriers. It's perfect."

"Perfect for what?" Shinjiro asked, suddenly uneasy.

"Perfect for the extermination of the human race."

Shinjiro stared at the completely serious look on Man Beast's animal features. His mouth felt like it was operating on automatic as he asked, "That's a joke, right? You mean you're going to threaten to unleash the virus on humanity if our demands aren't met, right?"

Man Beast looked Shinjiro in the eye, seeming to take in his entire form. Shinjiro swore he could see himself in there. A very tiny, terrified version of himself. "Don't be silly. You want to save all the animals from humanity, so the best way to do it is by removing humanity from the equation. Simple solutions are sometimes the best to apply to complex problems."

That wasn't what Shinjiro wanted at all, and he said so. "I want man and nature to live in harmony!"

Man Beast's snout turned into a rictus grin. "I'm disappointed in you, Shinjiro. I thought you had vision. I thought you were willing to sacrifice anything, even your life, for the cause of saving animals from people. And I, being a kind and generous leader, am eager to give you the opportunity to live up to those expectations. Not another single animal will ever die at humanity's hands again if there are no humans to kill them. It's the only sensible solution that guarantees animals protection long after we are gone."

It was then Shinjiro learned that just because something was logical didn't necessitate it making sense. "But… killing off all of mankind is just another form of genocide, like what man does to nature. Genocide is wrong for people and animals. We can find a more peaceful solution that doesn't involve killing."

Man Beast arced a curious eyebrow. "Really? This is a side of you I've never heard before. You were certainly eager to cripple some of the scientists that we've attacked, and a handful of people have died during our operations, even if they were not by design. And you implied we should do more if our demands were not met."

Shinjiro moved uneasily. "Well, I meant no indiscriminate killing. I mean, sure, I'm a realist. Some people deserved to die for the things they've done to animals, some even as a message to the others that would do the same thing. But… but not everyone needs to die to prove a point."

Man Beast suddenly became calm. Eerily so. "Would you like me to tell you a story? It's called, 'The Evolution of Man'."

"I already know about Darwinism," Shinjiro said, then immediately regretted the words. If Man Beast wanted to explain evolution to him in excruciating detail, it would be best to listen. As long as the half-crazed animal was talking to Shinjiro, it meant he wasn't trying to exterminate Shinjiro, and the human race along with him. Besides, maybe there was something he could say to get his leader to refocus on the true nature of the cause. He was probably just getting caught up in the moment. Power corrupting and all that.

Man Beast shook his head. "Not this sort of Darwinism. Oh no. Mind you, Darwin had the right idea, if not the correct version of the true 'origin of man.' The High Evolutionary discovered it, and it took time for even him to absorb the full repercussions of the truth." Man Beast turned away and began speaking, waving his arms as though giving a lecture to an invisible class of students.

"There is a race of enigmatic beings, thousands of feet tall and each encased in its own unique armor, called the Celestials. They go around from life-bearing planet to life-bearing planet, since that is what they do. They visited Earth a million years ago and examined the 'highest' life form: your ancestors. They decided to experiment on this 'highest' life form on a genetic level and see what would happen.

"They created three unique types of beings from that first common ancestor. One was a now-extinct race called the Eternals. Another, also extinct race, was called the Youma. However, the third race was different. Unlike the other two, it managed to flourish, eventually covering the planet and becoming the dominant life form.

"Humans."

Now Man Beast began to take on a frenetic tone. "The High Evolutionary isn't certain exactly how you were tampered with, but it doesn't matter. Like your two sister races, you should have become extinct. Instead, you self-deluded genetic abominations have covered the landscape, and in the process retarded the natural evolution of every other life form on this planet. You should never have existed. I, and the other natural races, should have been the ones to inherit this planet, just as we have in Wundagore. Instead you leapfrogged everything else, thanks to those cosmic interlopers. Well guess what, human, it's your turn to find out what it's like to have someone pass you by. I am the peak of lupine evolution, a stage which far transcends your million year one. I have judged humanity an aberration to the natural order, and will execute it, returning this planet to a state upon which its intended natural evolution will be allowed to progress as nature intended."

For just a brief instant, Shinjiro could understand how a person could kill an animal, given the insane creature before him. He'd feel guilty about such thoughts later, since they went against everything he believed in, but right now he had to make it out of the room alive, and there was only one way to do that. "It all makes sense when you put it that way. Yes, you are right, Sir. We do need to remove humanity from the equation. It's the only way to be sure." Shinjiro tried sounding fanatically devoted to Man Beast's cause.

Man Beast placed comforting hands upon Shinjiro's shoulders and smiled. "I'm so glad you understand, my friend. All we're doing is setting things right."

"Yes, sir." He could feel his face burn red, his heart race in panic, death so close to him as it was now.

"Excellent." And with that Man Beast grabbed Shinjiro's head and snapped his neck with barely a hint of his true strength.

As the body slumped to the floor, Cat Man said, "You didn't rip his throat out."

Man Beast gave a sedate look to his companion. "He didn't anger me, really. He was loyal, but alas, knew too much."

"Only because you told him," Cat Man pointed out.

Man Beast shrugged. "What difference does it make? It's not like the rest of humanity won't be following in his footsteps in the next hour or so."

Cat Man said, "By the way, you said it worked on primates as well. Do you think it might harm Gort? I know you probably already calculated the chances of his being too evolutionarily advanced for the virus to work on him, but," Tabur trailed off as Man Beast gave him a flat stare. "Right. Why bother calculating when it would only affect one of our guys?"

Man Beast stopped looking at Tabur as though he were as bright as their simian partner. "Precisely. If he is not immune, I'll have a monument built to him in remembrance of the sacrifice he made. If I bother to remember. And if he is immune, all the better. In any case, we won't trouble his straightforward mind with that minor detail." Man Beast turned his attention back to Overrider. "Keep me posted with how far you are past the security field. I want to know the instant you break through. I'll be through that door and opening that virus faster than you can say, 'Genocide'."

A rumble shook the building.

Man Beast whirled around, looking at Cat Man. "That was not an earthquake. I would have sensed it before it struck."

"An explosion," Cat Man seconded.

"Can't those stupid humans not interfere for just one hour? Is it too much to ask?" A communicator on the Man Beast's uniform crackled, interrupting his railing. He grabbed it and set it to transmit. "What happened?"

The frightened sound of a human voice quavered, "The Avengers are attacking the building. They're hitting the lobby."

"Our crack human troops are there with the best weapons we bought off of AIM," Cat Man said.

"Which might hold them off for several seconds," Man Beast snarled. "Get the rest of our companions. We just need to buy an hour of time. And if we have to kill those fools to do it," he smiled viciously. "All the better."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Man, talk about cannon fodder," Captain Japan said as he dispatched the fourth to last masked ALF soldier with a hard fist.

"I hate wasting arrows on these putzes, even my rubber tipped ones," Hawkeye seconded as she dropped the third to last man.

"You need a returning weapon," Daredevil said, bouncing a billy club off the next to last man. The return path of the weapon caused it to hit the floor once before landing in Daredevil's open hand.

"They are immensely dissatisfying," Wasp said as she relieved the last of the resistance of her consciousness with a low-powered sting.

The Hulk picked himself up off the floor, snickering so hard his eyes were tearing. "Stun blasts tickle Hulk."

"We'll be sure to let you handle all of them in the future, you big galoot," Captain Japan assured him. "Now what we gotta do is spread out and take out the rest of these losers before they get it in their heads to start harming hostages."

Thor scowled. "Tis most unfortunate that Iron Rose is still delirious from the concussion she sustained in battle. Since it could not have come from these louts." She nudged one of the fallen ALF. "There must be greater powers that lie within, powers that might test the goddess of thunder."

"Hulk likes laughing, but hates tests," he grumbled.

"T'would be a test of strength, which thou doth excel at," Thor reminded him.

"Hulk would pass strength test. Probably get 'A'," he admitted.

Wasp said, "It would be a lot more fun than beating up on these, what should we call them, lackeys? Minions?"

"Loyal servants devoted to a benevolent cause from which all might benefit."

All eyes turned to the main hall which led deeper into the building. They saw Man Beast and the five members of his Ani-Men approach. Man Beast stood at the forefront of the group, while both Bird Man and Dragonfly were already airborne. The other, land-bound villains fanned out behind their leader, intent on not presenting too close a grouping.

"You this Man Beast guy?" Captain Japan asked.

"None of them are human. They seem to be real animal men, not guys in costumes," Daredevil informed the others, able to hear their heartbeats, smell their hair, and their overpowering animal scents. Especially the Ape Man. Hadn't he ever heard of a bath?

"Too true," Man Beast acknowledged. "But while we are not human, and are proud of our animal heritage, we still regard ourselves as equal to humans, and worthy of the same respect you would give to others whose only common ground with you might be their genetic structure."

"Uh, yeah, sure," Captain Japan said.

"Of course we respect you," Giant Man said more firmly.

The Hulk scratched his head. "Hulk feels like Hulk is in zoo."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?!" Ape Man shouted. A glare from Man Beast silenced him, ending the diatribe before it could begin.

Giant Man was quick to intercede. "Forgive our companion. He's a bit childlike in simply blurting out whatever comes to mind."

In an unusual gesture of assistance, Daredevil asked the Hulk, "What's your favorite food?"

"Beans, which reminds Hulk that he's hungry." He rubbed his stomach for emphasis.

"Perhaps we can accommodate you by drawing things to a quick conclusion?" Man Beast suggested.

"Yeah, give yourselves up or face the combined might of the Avengers," Captain Japan proclaimed boldly, sticking out his chest and trying to make himself appear as much a paragon of justice as he could.

Both Hawkeye and Thor took a moment to appreciate his figure.

Man Beast pondered that. There was a winsome note in his voice as he said, "I sheepishly confess, now that I have taken this impulsive step in seizing this building and issuing our demands to the world, I feel a certain reluctance in doing what I threatened. Violence is a poor solution to such problems as the ones society faces, and I wonder if perhaps I am worsening the situation by engaging in such behavior. I would implore you that you might give me time to ponder my actions and consider an alternate avenue, a non-violent one, of achieving my, and my organization's, goals?"

"You mean you're just giving up?" Hawkeye asked warily.

Man Beast shook his head. "Not exactly. More like reconsidering my position. Allow me to suggest a gesture of good faith for this request for more time. I will release a dozen hostages into your care right now. I will then release another dozen in a half hour, and then one more dozen at the end of the hour? I will also guarantee that so long as no one takes up arms against us, we will harm no one. Feel free to remain outside, poised to fall upon us should we try to break our word or affect an escape in any way. I would not protest your presence, and given your responsibilities, you could do no less yourselves than remain on watch. I beg of you, give me this chance so we might resolve this situation without further violence."

Giant Man smiled. "Actually that sounds—"

"--Like whatever master scheme you have is only going to take an hour to do," Captain Japan finished. "You super-villain mastermind types always try the same tricks, and they always fail. You're just so predictable it makes me wanna barf."

Giant Man whirled on Captain Japan. "Now see here. We finally have a chance to resolve things without—"

Man Beast's eyebrow twitched in fury. "Let's see if you can predict this. You'll—"

"--Never leave this building alive," Captain Japan finished with a smirk.

Man Beast trembled in rage, almost having a mini-seizure. "Kill them! And make it—"

"Painful!" Captain Japan shouted.

Man Beast lost all coherence as he charged at the white and red hero, mouth all but frothing. Captain Japan stood his ground, ready for the attack. It never landed though as Thor's hammer struck Man Beast in the side, batting him away and into the reception desk in the lobby, rendering it a broken tangle of wood and plastic.

The other heroes were about to leap into action against the remainder of the Ani Men when Dragonfly shouted, "Don't look into my eyes!"

Naturally, all the Avengers did so, while all of the Ani Men, except Dragonfly, made a point of staring at the ground. The heroes watched as her pupil-less orbs went from white to yellow. Suddenly, all desire to fight left most of them. They stood, motionless, staring off into space, not a care in the world.

Cat Man looked at Dragonfly's back as he complimented her. "Telling them not to look into those hypnotic eyes of yours was a nice touch."

She kept staring at the team as she answered her teammate. "Whenever you tell people not to do something, their first impulse is to do it. Now we can kill them at our leis—"

A billy club bounced off her head, making her break eye contact with the group as Dragonfly dazedly fluttered to the ground, her eyes reverting back to their normal white.

"I guess I didn't get it," Daredevil bragged as his companions began blinking back into the real world.

"Allow me to explain, then!" Cat Man ran at Daredevil at top speed. The red-garbed adventurer tried to snare the feline in a set of chains that burst forth from his billowing sleeves, but Tabur proved too nimble, rolling under the flying weapons in a furry ball. He came out of the roll just in time to leap up and scratch Daredevil across the double 'D' of his costume's chest.

"Score one for our side," Cat Man boasted, then slashed at the Avenger again.

"Don't worry, I'll help!" Captain Japan hurled his shield at the feline, only to have a green blur cut into the path of the weapon, kicking it out of midair. The shield skittered across the floor, stopping near a set of benches and well away from its owner's hands.

Captain Japan barely resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the sight of the foe who was choosing to square off with him. "Great, who are you, Leap Frog II?"

"Technically it's Frog Man, probably II if there was some guy that went by the name before me. You can call me Croaker, though. But before I'm through with you you'll be the one croaking!" Frog Man leapt at the hero.

Even Captain Japan was surprised at how quickly Frog Man closed the distance to them. He barely had enough time to leap out of the way as Croaker landed right where the hero's foot had been a moment ago. The Ani-Man's legs impacted with enough force to crack the marble floor of the entryway.

"What do you know, a Frog guy that doesn't completely suck," Captain Japan admitted. "Though they'll be serving frog legs in prison before the night is out."

"We'll see about that, humie!" Frog Man leapt at him again.

The Hulk was still in the process of blinking his eyes free, his mind being more captivated by Dragonfly's hypnosis than the others, when a furry form bulldozed into him, knocking him off his feet. Before the Hulk could get up, five hundred pounds of angry, evolved ape jumped on his back. Ape Man's legs wrapped themselves around the Hulk's torso, clinging tightly as he began to pound away with all of his superhuman strength. Even the Hulk was caught off guard by the sheer savagery of the attack as the Ani-Man pressed his advantage.

Giant Man was at a loss. Things had started out so well. However, it had all been an illusion, Man Beast lying about giving up, at least that was what it seemed since he was so quick to confirm Captain Japan's accusation regarding him. Now Giant Man found himself embroiled in yet another conflict. At least this time he could feel some satisfaction since there were people's lives on the line, including his teammates, who weren't faring all that well. Captain Japan was weaponless against his foe. The Hulk had a giant monkey pounding on him, one that was powerful enough to have an effect against even the emerald behemoth's thick hide. Dragonfly was starting to flitter up on her insect wings, and Daredevil was at an obvious disadvantage against his more nimble, and stronger foe.

Since he had lost sight of Wasp, and no one seemed to be attacking her, Giant Man finally decided on helping the blind adventurer. He was about to kick at Cat Man when a loud, ear-piercing shriek caused the hairs on the back of his neck to stand up. He turned toward the sound, only to have a whirling dervish of feathers and claws rake at his eyes as Bird Man attacked.

The first rake tore through part of Giant Man's mask, drawing blood and nearly claiming one of his large orbs. Giant Man threw his arms over his face in an effort to ward off the attack from the avian member of the group. He silently cursed the fact he couldn't just grow higher, due to the lower ceiling of the lobby, and out of reach of Bird Man. Fifteen feet was the most he could manage without knocking himself out against the ceiling, and possibly crushing friend as well as foe.

Wasp winced as Giant Man tried to keep his eyes from being scratched out. She wanted to save Tofu, of course, but he was going to have to hold his own for the moment. The woman with the insect wings, like Wasp's own but larger, had returned to the air. Her hypnotic powers might have made her the most dangerous, and the diminutive Avenger couldn't allow her to use them again. Mindful to stay behind the villainess, Wasp flew up until she was nearly at point blank range. Since the Ani-Woman had shrugged off a billy club to the head, Wasp was determined to unleash a near full power sting at her. That should take care of Dragonfly, then she could help Giant Man with his feathery problem.

Before Wasp could fire her blast, Dragonfly spun in a one hundred eighty degree arc, lashing out with a fist. The spin allowed the blow to build up a great deal of velocity, and she unerringly knocked Wasp out of the air and to the ground.

Dragonfly looked down at her foe. "Nice try, but I can see in all directions, just like an unevolved dragonfly. Now, let's see how well you fight with your eyes closed, unless you want to look me in mine and see whose will is more powerful."

Having already fallen under the villainess' sway once, Wasp closed her eyes, flying and firing in the general direction of where the Ani-Woman had attacked her. Dragonfly took exclusively to the air to avoid the blast. Wasp heard her flying and also took off, initiating an aerial ballet that had Wasp trying to keep Dragonfly in her peripheral vision while the larger woman tried to make eye contact with her.

Thor was concerned for her teammates. While the remaining Ani-Men had wisely chosen to take on other, lesser foes, it would not save them. She could break the stalemate, her power being enough to defeat any of her foes, even if Dragonfly had gotten lucky in hypnotizing her.

Thor figured it would be easiest to defeat the Ape Man, freeing the Hulk up, and then she would move on to dispatch one of the others while the emerald giant did the same.

Thor drew back her hammer when Hawkeye cried, "Look out!" and pointed an arrow at her.

"What is the meaning of this!" For a moment, Thor thought Hawkeye had been ensorcelled by Dragonfly, much as the Enchantress had bound Furinkan's male population to her will. Then the goddess saw the movement behind her, just at the edge of her vision. Where she had given Man Beast a full force throw of Mjolnir.

Thor watched a jagged bolt of pink energy leap from his forehead and toward her. The beam slammed into her with the force of a runaway train, bowling the Goddess of Thunder backward and into her archer companion. Hawkeye's shaft went wide as the far heavier, denser Asgardian's body knocked her unconscious.

Thor rose, seeing her comrade lying on the ground. She took a moment to peer at her fallen archer closely, and was relieved to see Hawkeye breathing regularly. As much as Thor wanted to stay at the bold archer's side, there was far more pressing business to take care of. "Od's blood, thou art truly a monster for using me against mine comrade."

"As though some deluded human has the right to judge one so vastly her evolutionary superior," Man Beast roared as he unleashed yet another bolt of mental energy.

Thor raised her hammer and a bolt of electricity fired from it, meeting the mental blast in midair. A flash of blinding light erupted from the collision of primal and mental forces before they cancelled each other out.

Man Beast gnashed his teeth in anger at seeing his offense thwarted. "Foolish woman, that will not save you. I'll tear you apart with my bare hands!" He rushed forward

"I say thee nay!" Thor raced headlong to meet his charge.

The two collided with bone-breaking force. As powerful as the Man Beast was, his foe was more powerful. The collision sent him to his knees while Thor stood above him.

"The Fenris Wolf thou are not." Thor drew back her hammer for a mighty swing.

Man Beast recovered far more quickly than Thor anticipated, grabbing her by the wrist and preventing the hammer from descending. Worse, she left an opening and was caught off-guard as his fist slammed into her jaw. One of his claws caught her on the lip, slicing it open and causing it to bleed.

Using all of her might, Thor threw Man Beast aside, then wiped her face with her arm. She noted the crimson streak left behind on her flesh. "So, let us do combat for real."

"There is no other way I fight, you genetic abomination!" Man Beast snarled as he did his best to kill the goddess.

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

The vertical slits of the figure's pupils tracked the way the fight progressed: a stalemate, more or less, though it would not last long. After having observed hundreds of fights to the death, the trained eye could tell when one force had an advantage through surprise. While the Ani-Men were pressing, they did not strike deep enough in the hearts of their foes to slay them. Soon the tide would most likely turn.

But that wasn't true on every front. One fight was going badly, and that was the opportunity the figure needed.

Muscles tensed up as the being waited for the right opening.

Xxxxxxxx

Daredevil cried out as Cat Man's latest slash dug into his flesh again, drawing blood. While the blind adventurer was quick, possibly the quickest one on his team, the feline had to be seen to be believed. He was all over the place, avoiding the attacks leveled against him, his claws digging deep with every blow that landed. Cat Man was quicker, more agile, far stronger, and completely ruthless. Only Daredevil's versatility with weapons held off the superior warrior. Had he been going for the kill the way Cat Man was, it might have been a different story, but Daredevil had long ago decided that was no line he would willingly cross.

His weapon advantage became a thing of the past as Cat Man snared a tear from an early blow in Daredevil's outfit. The claw caught, tearing a large chunk of the chest and one arm off from the uniform. Daredevil's hidden weapon technique was seriously hampered by a lack of clothing.

A kick to his gut caused Daredevil to double over, momentarily winding him and switching his worry of losing his weapons over to losing his life.

"Time to die." Cat Man would have preferred to play with his prey --no matter how evolved one got some instincts were hard-wired into the psyche-- but he was needed in one of the other fights. He was certain once one of his companions was freed up from their fight, their superior numbers would turn the tide of battle in his side's favor.

Just as Cat Man was about to claw out Daredevil's throat, a purple and pink blur came out from behind a bench. It was as fast as he was, if not faster, and on him before he could react. He felt fire come from his back as a set of claws dug deep past his fur and into his flesh beneath.

Tabur spun and saw his foe. A cat girl, every bit as feline as himself. She was covered head to toe in purple fur with pink points and black stripes across her body. She wore next to nothing, just a blue bikini that covered a barely decent amount of flesh. He could see a belt of what looked like sharpened fangs around her waist, above the bikini, and a little cat head emblem that kept the front of the bikini together. He had a thing for front-tie bikini tops.

But as turned on as Cat Man was by the appearance of the seriously hot female so similar to him, pain transformed that lust into rage. "Who the hell are you?!"

"Nihao. Am Tigra, the Were-Woman," she purred, making a display of licking the blood from her claws.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

In the main research lab, Overrider jerked. She had been keeping an eye on the fight as she infiltrated the security systems. She was only one firewall away from reaching her goal when Tigra made her appearance.

It couldn't be! The Tigra was here? Overrider knew the legends, of how they spoke of her returning to them at their greatest moment and being the key to opening the gateway, but still, to see her right on the security monitor was almost more than Overrider could comprehend.

Killing off humanity with the virus no longer mattered. Nothing did. All was secondary to the Tigra's return. Overrider's true loyalties were what mattered, not this spy mission to infiltrate the ALF and give them the assistance they needed. Black Cat had to be notified immediately and decisions would have to be made.

Removing her hand from the computer screen, Overrider rose to her feet, then walked through a wall, heading toward the nearest ground level exit.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Together," Daredevil shouted as he lashed out with a kick to the back of the surprised Cat Man's legs.

Instinctively using his sense of balance to right himself, Cat Man was unprepared as Tigra unleashed a hard right to his head, knocking him to the floor. Daredevil rolled over next to the feline's prone form and elbowed him in the head, knocking Tabur senseless.

As though heralding the inevitable, other fights began turning in the heroes' favor. The Hulk had finally recovered enough from the surprise and force of his foe's savagery, becoming angry himself. "Hulk has plenty of monkeys on his back! He does not want another one!" He reached over his shoulder and grabbed Gort by the fur, pulling the evolved gorilla from his back and slamming him into the ground, cracking the marble. A second fist met the fallen Ape Man's solar plexus, winding him. Gort barely had the strength to bounce back to his feet, nearly failing to get out of the way of the follow up fist which might very well have finished him off.

Giant Man finally managed to connect with Bird Man with a blind swat, knocking him to the ground, landing near enough to the fallen Cat Man that had he struck, he would have broken the feline's bones.

Dragonfly was forced to retreat, flying unsteadily. One of Wasp's blasts had gone through the membrane of her wing, causing considerable pain and loss of maneuverability. She was a sitting duck for the diminutive Avenger, and decided to seek cover of her teammates, using them as shields, if necessary.

Frog Man continued bouncing around Captain Japan like a hyperactive rubber ball. But the super-soldier serum had increased the hero's reflexes to peak human efficiency. That edge was sufficient to finally anticipate Frog Man's flight path, and enabled Captain Japan to be quick enough to do something about it. "That's enough of that!" he yelled as he held an arm straight out at his side.

The huge arm caught Croaker in the gut, nearly cutting him in half with how much velocity the Frog Man had. The villain barely enough strength left to take two tiny bounces toward his other beaten comrades.

Man Beast was the only one still holding his own, his rage making him powerful enough to fight Thor to a standstill. But then he took a telling blow from a fist to his face, courtesy of the Asgardian.

With two feet in-between him and his foe, Man Beast might as well have been a mile away as far as Hawkeye was concerned. An arrow flew through the air, embedding itself in his fur and discharging a powerful shot of electricity into him.

Hawkeye stared at him grimly, another arrow notched in the bow. "Jackass, nearly making me miss the fight. Hawkeye isn't going to take that lying down, Dog Boy."

Man Beast roared in anger at the insult, but with a break in the action, he saw the others and realized the fight was over, the day lost as his Ani-Men huddled together in defeat. He backed toward them, saying into his communicator. "Overrider, what's your status?"

The communicator cracked. "I'm abandoning ship. Overrider out."

The communicator shattered in Man Beast's grip. "Damn that bitch! I'll kill her! I'll kill you all!" he raged at the Avengers.

"You ain't going to be killing nothing, except time in a cell," Captain Japan said.

Man Beast's fury grew. "You think you've won? Well I've got news for you, you'll never take us alive! And you won't make it out of here either, since I have explosives wired at critical junctures of the building. It'll come down around all of our ears, and there's nothing you can do about it!"

A ripple of concern shot through the gathered heroes.

Thor tightened her grip on the hammer. "Thou shalt tell us where yon explosives are. No 'or's are involved. You will tell us."

Man Beast laughed. "Better to die at our own hands than be defeated at yours, you genetic mistakes!"

A crackling aura of pink, the same shade as Man Beast's mental bolts, enveloped the group. The Avengers saw the villains stare at them in grim resolve.

Then there was a flash of light and a loud explosion that knocked all but Giant Man, the Hulk, and Thor off their feet. By the time they could see again, nothing was left of the villains but a blasted out hole.

"Man, I hate fanatics," Captain Japan sighed.

"I think—" Daredevil's statement was interrupted by the sudden explosion of the largest column in the lobby, spraying debris all over the Avengers, the largest piece bouncing off the Hulk's head, irritating him.

"Shoot, he wasn't bluffing. There really are bombs!" Hawkeye shouted.

"How do we find them?" Giant Man asked.

"I might be able to with my enhanced senses," Daredevil offered.

Hawkeye said, "But even if we find them, how do we dispose of them? Iron Rose might have enough technical know-how to do it, but none of us do."

"Leave that to me," Thor said.

It was at that moment that the ceiling groaned and started to sag, starting where the column had blown. Obviously it had been there for more than ornamentation.

Captain Japan shouted, "Quick, Hulk, hold up the roof before the whole ceiling comes down on our heads."

The Hulk obeyed without protest, as though sensing the gravity of the situation. He stood under the jagged remnants of the column. He grabbed the column with his huge hands, using his own body to support the sagging structure.

Seeing the makeshift brace succeed in supporting the tons of building above it, Captain Japan turned to Hawkeye, Giant Man, and Wasp. "Evacuate the building fast, and if there are any more of these ALF goons, take them out."

"And what about Tigra?"

All eyes, even the Hulk's, turned toward the feline woman in their midst.

"You're on our side?" Captain Japan asked.

"Tigra would not have helped Avengers, if not on your side," she said, eyeing the bloodied Daredevil meaningfully.

"Good enough," Captain Japan said. "You help with the evacuation, and I'll be keeping a close eye on you, just in case you develop a sudden revelation about having more in common with those animal guys than us."

She sidled up to the hero, rubbing her furry body against him in a blatantly seductive manner. "Tigra would like nothing better than to keep the big strong Captain next to her," she purred.

Thor and Hawkeye growled nearly as deeply as the Man Beast had earlier.

"Let's go!" Captain Japan shouted.

With lives at stake, the group did as instructed.

Xxxxxxxx

Ten minutes later the Avengers stood outside the headquarters of Kobayashi Pharmaceuticals. The hostages had been rescued and the building evacuated. The remaining handful of ALF members had been quickly dispatched. Even the Hulk had been recovered from his serving as an emerald version of Atlas, though the interior of the lobby collapsed as soon as he left. The remaining bombs had been recovered before detonating and sent to some other dimension courtesy of Thor's hammer. The only exception was a trio of explosives that had been planted in the building's basement. Those had gone off during the evacuation with spectacular effect. Luckily the foundation held, though the surrounding buildings were also evacuated, just in case.

Wasp flitted among the group. "It was a good thing the rest of them didn't go off. I doubt we could have saved everyone if they had detonated when the first one blew up."

"Chalk it up to shoddy explosives," Captain Japan said.

"I don't know," Daredevil grumbled, something not feeling right about the way things had ended. He couldn't put his finger on it, but something felt out of place. It was a pity they hadn't kept at least one of the explosives, but he agreed that it had been too dangerous to keep the sophisticated devices around when one could go off at any time. Still, it would have been nice if Iron Rose had been present to look them over.

Agitated heartbeats switched his mind over to a matter closer at hand, one that might be even more dangerous than walking around with a super-villain's suicide device. Thor and Hawkeye were glaring daggers at the newcomer, this Tigra, who continued to drape herself over Captain Japan, who seemed uneasy at the cat girl's attention.

Captain Japan removed himself from the were-woman's grasp before the others removed her from him. Not so much that he felt in danger from his teammates, just that having women blatantly throw themselves at him always made him a bit uneasy, even if he could understand how they found a paragon of virtue like him irresistible.

"Now, just who are you?" Captain Japan asked.

"Ah, yes, forgot to introduce self properly." She bowed before Captain Japan. "Am Tigra, the Were-Woman. Tigra helped Avengers because she wants to join. Tigra can be valuable addition to the team, just like she prove today."

"Sorry, roster's full," Hawkeye said quickly.

"Tis in the charter," Thor agreed.

"We don't have a charter," Giant Man pointed out.

"Pay no heed to meaningless details!" Thor snapped nastily, making even the large hero take one giant step back from her.

Tigra gave a wide smile, showing off her fangs. "So, too tall Swede afraid of being upstaged by Tigra? Is probably good fear."

"None can outperform the Goddess of Thunder, as many a foe can attest to," she bellowed. "And I'm not Swedish."

"Another teammate may be good idea," Wasp ventured.

"No, it's a bad idea. We'll trip over our own feet if there are too many of us," Hawkeye said, then added, "Besides, we have standards this alley cat could never live up to."

Tigra looked ready to claw the archer's eyes out, while Hawkeye appeared eager to use the feline for target practice.

"Maybe we should vote on it?" Daredevil suggested.

It was at that moment the Hulk finally interjected himself into the discussion by moving toward the applicant. He walked right up to her, not saying a word. Tigra remained where she was, looking up at the jade giant with no fear, but missing her earlier bluster.

The Hulk raised one hand slowly above the were-woman, palm open. Tigra tensed up, but the Hulk lowered it slowly on her head, resting it there. He then began stroking Tigra's long purple mane of hair, petting it like he would a housecat.

He did that several times, then stopped and turned to the group. "Hulk likes Cat Girl. Cat Girl can join."

"We have to put it to a vote," Hawkeye protested.

"And Hulk voted. Now Cat Girl is on team." The Hulk's body posture told everyone that as far as he was concerned, election day was over and his candidate had won in a landslide.

Everyone seemed content with the choice, with only Thor and Hawkeye reluctant in their acceptance, but not wanting to appear juvenile in before the others.

Tigra's feline eyes glistened in delight.

Mission complete. Captain Japan would be hers. It was only a matter of time.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

End Chapter  
DB Sommer: Member of the Fanfiction Mailing List since '97. Come on and join the fun for some good C+C and stories. Just send an email to with 'subscribe ffml' in subject line and you're in. 


	29. Act III Animal Farm Chap 5

Avenging Act III, The Animal Farm Chapter 5

Any and all C+C appreciated. You can contact me at: the previous chapters and my other works are stored at:

Larry F's new address at:  
newer works at Mediaminer disclaimer: I don't own any of the Marvel characters or other characters from the numerous animes which are within.

Here's a great reference guide for many character and objects in the Marvel Universe.

chapter: Man Beast and the Ani Men were defeated, preferring death to capture, they blew themselves up, nearly taking the building with them. But tragedy is averted, and the heroes go on with their lives.

Warning, the action scene has a lot of POV shifts, but breaking them up with 'xxxx' seemed too bulky. Let me know if there's some other way to do it, or if I should break them up with the x's

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"…and there you have it. That's the newest Avenger, Tigra, the Were-Woman. And remember folks, despite the name, she assures us she is not a lycanthrope, and her bite will not turn you into a were-anything. This is Akemi Shutaro, signing off."

Irie Soyozoh pointed the remote at the television and paused the recording. Akemi stood there, looking seriously at camera, unfazed by the antics of the cat girl at her side. Tigra was frozen, hand extended in mid-wave at the television camera, looking for all the world like a cute little girl. It invoked images of someone as dangerous as a kitten. But not for Irie. He had met more than a handful of dangerous kittens that needed to be shot, not cuddled. Although stuffing one and putting it on his mantle, now there was an idea. It would make quite the conversation piece, to be certain. One could never have too many conversation pieces, at least in Irie's opinion.

Turning away from the television, Irie leafed through the scattering of files on his desk. To the casual eye it appeared disorderly, like a small tornado had touched down just long enough to scatter everything and destroy nothing. It was an illusion. Irie knew exactly where everything was, right down to the letter requisitioning a box of red Swingline staplers. That would be from the office staff on the fourth floor of the headquarters. They were such kidders. Irie picked up the contemporary humor in the request. He'd show them he knew how to joke as well. He would send them to the field office on Benten Island. It was lovely there. In the dead of winter it was just like the North Pole. He bet they'd get a big laugh out of that.

Yes, Irie knew where every single paper on his desk was, since he was the one that had put them there. It was a side he never let anyone see, that he was capable of leaving things thrown about in seeming disorder. But in truth it made access to the various files easier, being able to grab the one he needed rather than leafing through a pile. Most outsiders probably would have mocked him for using hard copies, since browsing on a computer would be easier. While that was accurate, the truth was when dealing with Phantom Cats, the less reliance on computers, the better.

Irie unerringly located the file he wanted and leafed through it for the third time, as though reassuring himself the subject matter was still there, exactly the same as it had been before. It was. Phantom Cat legends were quite specific on the topic. It made up the majority of what little theological background Hound had managed to dig up on the Phantom Cats. It even had corroboration from a secondary source, though Irie found the Vatican's secret files filled with more than a touch of religious hyperbole. He doubted the Phantom Cats were really demons that had created the Black Plague anymore than the Vatican had helped Nazi Vampires escape persecution during World War II.

Whatever their origins, it was the Phantom Cats' present that had Irie concerned. This recent event would turn everything upside down among the felines. It had taken Irie billions of yen and many years to line up so many dominos, all of them ready to fall into place. Only eight more months, a year at the most, and Irie had been confident the issue of the Phantom Cats could have been resolved once and for all. Councilwoman Arjuna's interference had been enough of a pain, but the whole Tigra situation set everything on its ear. Adjustments would have to be made if "Operation Deep Freeze" was to achieve its goals. Agendas would have to be moved ahead of schedule, and risks would have to be taken.

It was time to make the fateful decision. Irie picked up the phone to his secretary and said, "Tell Corporal Narusawa that it's time to contact 'M'. She's already been briefed on the situation, although it wouldn't hurt to reemphasize to her that we'll agree to whatever payment 'M' requires for the job."

The best always required top dollar, but they were worth it, especially if even half of what was said about 'M' was true. He really hated hiring freelancers, but he no longer had the time to create a viable alternative. 'M's unique abilities were required to make 'Operation Deep Freeze' work, even if there was a considerable security risk in bringing in an outsider, and a highly untrustworthy one at that. Oh, 'M' wouldn't back out of the mission once the stakes involved in it were revealed, but there was always a chance the freelancer might try to steal a few of Hound's secrets along the way.

But gambling was a part of the great game, and with the stakes this high, folding was not an option. It was time to put everything into the pot and hope he came out on top.

Irie hung up the phone. The wheels were set into motion.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Hans Jurgens, captain of the 'Celibate Angel' and part-time smuggler, didn't care for this trip to Japan. Sure, he had made plenty of runs before. Hell, business was better than ever with the capture of Captain Barracuda and Commander Kraken a few months back. He had picked up many of their high-priced commissions that had been left behind. He had his harbor and dock contacts in place, the bribes paid in advance with a promise of extra if things went well. This job would pay three times as much as any had before, and Jurgens could certainly use the money. He had his eye on an AIM device that could make his ship invisible to radar and sonar.

So far everything had happened exactly as planned. He had picked up the cargo, delivered right up to the ship by Brand Corporation, in the US. Loading was simple, and he sailed straight for Japan, making it there in good time. He should have been relaxed and calm, just like the last dozen trips. But not this time. His stomach was in knots.

As Jurgens stood at the prow of the ship, watching his crew slip it into its place like the well-oiled machine he had trained, he grimaced. He knew exactly what was bothering him. It was the nature of his 'cargo'. While in principle he would ship anything for money, from guns to drugs to black market electronics, this was something else. Something he wanted no part of. Something that could blow up in his face worse than any bomb he ferried. Juggling live hand grenades would have been less stressful.

"Recriminations, Captain?" a voice to his right inquired.

Jurgens nearly jumped out of his skin. He hadn't heard the man come up at all, and after twenty years, Jurgens was aware of everything that happened on his vessel. The sneaky son-of-a-bitch wasn't human. He couldn't be.

Recovering quickly, Jurgens said, "Ready to make for shore, Mr. Baxter?"

"Call me 'Buzz'," the man in the trenchcoat and low, wide brimmed hat, insisted. From within one of the coat's deep pockets Baxter produced a cigarette and lighter. As Buzz put the cigarette in his mouth, Jurgens thought he caught a glimpse of unnaturally sharp teeth. He remembered reading 'Dracula' as a boy in his native Oslo, and an involuntary memory of the passage about the logs of the 'Demeter' jumped to the forefront of his mind.

The lighter's flame illuminated Baxter's face with an eerie glow. There was something about Baxter Jurgens didn't like. Something wild, untamed. Almost feral. The sooner the creepy man was off the ship, the better.

Jurgens watched as his crew moved with frightening efficiency. It wasn't just an eagerness for shore leave that made them itchy. Like their captain, they didn't care for the nature of their cargo. There had already been an incident when one of the crew had gotten either drunk, drugged, or stupid in agitating some of the cargo. It had been terrible for morale for the crew to round up the pieces of the fool for a burial at sea. But soon the cargo would be gone and the crew would have their shore leave. They could drink away their bonuses for successful completion of their job while the captain obtained the AIM device he wanted.

Cranes had placed a pair of the large crates on the dock when a commanding voice shouted, "Halt, or face the combined might of… the Avengers!"

Jurgens went pale as he saw none other than Captain Japan boldly standing at the end of the dock. Surrounding him were the rest of the Avengers. Daredevil was there billowing sleeves were crossed across his stomach, hands hidden inside their folds. Hawkeye stood poised with a bow in hand, arrow notched. The monstrous Hulk was impossible to miss as he crinkled his nose in disgust at the smell of raw fish. The new girl, Tigra, looked like she wanted to do nothing so much as wrap herself around Captain Japan. And there was the normal-sized Giant Man, hanging toward the back of the group, as though not wishing to be seen.

Flying in from above came Thor and Iron Rose, both intent on boarding the ship, and maybe sinking it to the bottom of the bay.

"Oh god! I knew I shouldn't have gotten involved in this!" Jurgens wailed as he fell to his knees, his nautical career at an end.

Baxter spat his cigarette from his mouth. "Quit your whining, bitch. We'll take care of things for you."

Impossibly, Jurgens grew paler. "You can't be serious. Those are the Avengers."

"Which means we know them, and they don't know us. It's what we call an advantage in this business." He brought a cell-phone shaped communicator to his mouth. "Okay, boys, we got company. So why don't we surprise them when they get a little closer?"

"You're insane," Jurgens wailed.

"Doesn't mean I'm not going to win." Baxter smiled, flashing exceptionally large, sharp canines. The sight of it almost made Jurgens want to flee to the Avengers so he could surrender to them.

Some of the crew began to flee, heading for the ship or diving into the water. The Avengers rushed forward, intent on stopping them.

"Now!" Baxter cried out.

Figures burst from the ship's hold, over the side, and even from one of the crates on the dock, shattering it.

A glowing, green missile shot forth from the bridge, shattering it. It left a sparking trail behind it as it rocketed right for Iron Rose. Her eyes widened behind her visor's slits as the glowing object struck her in the chest, violently altering her flight by hurling her into the ocean. She landed with a splash, submerging beneath the waves, lost from sight.

Thor barely had time to register that when a huge red and white form shot out from the open hold from the deck of the ship. The instant her eyes settled on the creature, she was taken aback. It was appeared to be a large lion with giant eagle wings sprouting from its back. Its skin was covered in red, reptilian scales. But what was most bizarre was the pale human face and neck jutting from the lion's body.

"Time to die at the claws of the Griffen!" it shouted in English as it slammed into the goddess with inhuman strength. Unlike the being that had attacked Iron Rose, the Griffen used its wings and awesome power to drive Thor back to the shore, slamming her into the ground, keeping its full weight and power on top of her.

"Hammer Girl!" the Hulk shouted, as he turned to watch her thrown down to the ground.

In witnessing the object of his adore violently hurled from the sky, the Hulk's back was turned to the first crate that had been taken from ship, one now resting on the dock. The sound of metal being torn asunder filled the air as one side of the container blew open, and a black figure burst through it. The Hulk spun to see a fur-covered creature, every bit as large as the flying lion, hurl itself at him. Like the Griffen, it had a human face jutting out from the front of its body. However, instead of natural claws, its were mechanical, vicious-looking hooks of metal that appeared capable of slashing through anything.

Its tactics were nearly identical to the Griffen's as it slammed into the Hulk with its full body weight, knocking the emerald giant flat on his back. As it did so, it racked him with his front claws, piercing the Hulk's flesh and drawing blood, making the hero roar in pain.

As it continued trying to dig its claws deeper into the emerald behemoth's flesh, it hissed, "Know the name of your killer is Manticore, fool."

"Down boy!" Hawkeye shouted as the archer drew a bead on the back of Manticore's neck.

Daredevil moved to help as well, concentrating on Manticore's body. There was something unnatural about it, aside from a human's face being attached to an animal body. The Avenger was so intent on discovering the oddity that he almost failed to notice a flying figure hovering directly above them.

"Down!" Daredevil shouted, tackling Hawkeye just as a bolt of electricity struck the ground where the archer had been standing a moment before.

"Thanks," Hawkeye said, realizing what would have happened had the bolt struck. Looking up, the archer pinpointed their attacker. He was dressed in a grey bodysuit with blue gloves, boots, mask, and a cape that hovered behind him as he flew. A yellow silhouette of a bird was on his chest. Metal gauntlets on his wrists had a pair of short, yet sharp, metal blades protruding from them. The costume fit snugly enough to show an athletic frame, though not overly muscled, like the Hulk.

The flying man said, "You'll have no chance to save your comrade's life, since you're about to lose you own at the talons of Killer Shrike!"

"You look more like a pesky pigeon to me, especially after I put a few arrows into you." Hawkeye notched an arrow and shot it at Killer Shrike. Daredevil did likewise, hurling a set of chains from his sleeves.

Killer Shrike evaded the attacks as though he was dancing in the air. He brought his arms together, touching the sets of blades from each gauntlet. From the gauntlet another bolt of electricity hurled forth, forcing Daredevil to dodge this time. Unperturbed, both heroes kept up their attacks, hurling missile after missile at him.

Killer Shrike weaved his way through the aerial assault. "So you're both good with long range attacks as well. Let's see how you do in close quarters."

The villain swooped down toward Daredevil, like a diving bird of prey. With his radar sense, it was easy to calculate Killer Shrike's speed and trajectory. Daredevil timed it so his blow would have maximum effect.

Killer Shrike led with his face. He was nearly in range of Daredevil when he stopped in mid-air on a dime, as though time had suddenly frozen. Daredevil, not anticipating the instantaneous stop, was off on his punch, missing Killer Shrike by mere centimeters. Off balance, the hero was easy prey as Killer Shrike spun in mid-air, catching Daredevil in the jaw with a powerful kick which nearly took the hero's head off.

Killer Shrike postured above the woozy Avenger, standing on air as though it were ground. "I don't use wings to fly, like the Griffen. I have a set of anti-gravity modules implanted under my skin. No one can match my maneuverability."

"Then we'll have to knock you out of the sky!" Hawkeye swore as she launched a volley of arrows designed to make Killer Shrike back away from Daredevil, rather than hitting the villain. The attack did its work, making Killer Shrike abandon Daredevil in favor of a new target: Hawkeye.

As that combat started, Captain Japan, who had led the charge, stopped. Tigra, who had been bounding alongside him, paused as well.

"No stop. We almost at ship," Tigra said.

"I think they need help," Captain Japan said, seeing his teammates on the defensive thanks to the sneak attack.

"Aiyah! We have plenty of problems of own." Tigra pointed at two figures who leapt down from the deck of the ship at and at the heroes.

One discarded his trenchcoat in mid-leap, revealing a brown and gray outfit that had a canine motif, right down to a pair of ears on the top of his mask. Claws were at the ends of his brown gloves, and he was all but slavering from a mouth filled with sharp teeth.

The other one was dressed in a red bodysuit with black boots and gloves. A giant black spider stretched across the entire front of the outfit. He wore a bandanna type mask over his head. Both appeared physically fit, the one in the dog outfit just a touch more muscled than his companion, though neither was as large as Captain Japan.

The man in the dog outfit shouted, "You're mine, Kittycat!" He landed next to Tigra, and immediately lunged at her, claws and teeth bared.

Tigra moved out of the way as he landed where she had been a second before. He knocked chunks out of the concrete where his claws hit. When he stood back up, he showed no indication of pain from the impact, as though shattering concrete was no more difficult than tearing paper.

"You're fast, Kittycat, and pretty hot." He stared at her lasciviously. "I think I'll take you alive and interrogate you. Believe me, not only can I get you to talk, I'll have you howling at the moon, if you know what I mean."

In English, she retorted, "Stupid Dog Man totally outclassed by Tigra."

"I ain't a dog. I mean, I was going to call myself Mad Dog, but it turns out there was already some guy already named that. So I went with Warwolf, which is way cooler."

Tigra snorted in amusement and stared at his groin. "Name should probably be Chihuahua Boy. Is more appropriate with tiny thing between legs."

Warwolf began shaking in fury. "You're going to die for that one, bitch! Now that I think about it, you remind me way too much of my ex-wife! I think I'll bleed you nice and slow, like I'll do her someday."

Tigra cocked a finger at him and drew it toward her. "Come get some."

Captain Japan was barely aware of the exchange. His spider motif foe had leapt at him feet first, aiming at his head. Spikes suddenly clicked into place at the toes, changing the attack from dangerous to deadly.

Captain Japan brought his shield up, deflecting the attack. Sparks danced across the surface of the shield from the foot spikes. Despite hitting it with his full weight, combined with the height he had dropped from, the villain failed to budge Captain Japan a centimeter. Bouncing off the shield, he unsteadily landed on his feet, a testament to his agility.

The red-garbed villain bowed. "Good evening, Senor. It is an honor to meet you. I am La Tarantula." He spoke in heavily Spanish-accented English.

Captain Japan felt a bit uncomfortable. He was lousy with English, and wasn't even sure the guy was speaking it, given how thick the accent was. "Uh, yes," he attempted in English.

Tarantula began lashing out at Captain Japan with his feet, trying to stab him with the spikes. As he fought, he began to carry on a conversation. "We share a common background, you and I. You see, you were the inspiration for my creation. My government wanted a figure to represent our country, as well as defend it against enemies from within and without. I was trained in the art of combat, as you can tell."

Captain Japan was off-guard. He was unused to a super-villain talking to him so pleasantly, even if it was while attacking him. Usually they ranted about how powerful there were, how they were going to rend him limb from limb, or they would throw whatever sob story 'forced' them into knocking over a bank, as though it was for some reason other than becoming an instant millionaire. This guy had none of that attitude. He almost seemed to be gushing, like Captain Japan was his idol.

Worse, Captain Japan was fairly certain the guy was relating his origin story to him. The Avenger's understanding was so limited he'd probably say something to insult the guy and make him fly off the handle. That would be really bad since there might be something in the origin to point out to his foe to turn him into a good guy. That sometimes happened with reluctant super-villains, switching over to the side of angels.

Captain Japan remained on the defensive while he tried to think things through.

The glowing thing that had knocked Iron Rose out of the sky revealed itself to be a man. Unlike the others, he wore no mask: just a green body suit with a white spot on the center. Long blond hair flowed from behind him, making him appear quite ordinary.

Except for the white glow surrounding his body.

"Why couldn't you fools leave us alone?!" he shouted at the combatants around him. "All I wanted was access to the machines here! They promised me after a year of service, I could use them to go back to normal!"

"Normal is highly overrated," a female voice to his right said.

He turned and saw a small girl with insect wings flying nearby. Then he didn't see anything as she unleashed her 'sting' into his head. The energy blast struck him squarely in the face, dissolving it into a mist.

"Oh no!" Wasp exclaimed. "That shouldn't have happened. My blast wasn't anywhere near full force."

And then the mist coalesced back into the blond's face, appearing unaffected. "Damn you! Do you know how much I have to concentrate to recollect my form? I'm just like my codename, Willow the Wisp. But being forced into an incorporeal state is pain in the ass. So die." He lunged for Wasp.

"Keep away from her!" Giant Man shouted, entering the fray by shooting up to a height of thirty-five feet and reaching out for Willow the Wisp. The glowing man darted out from under Giant Man's reach, then retaliated by blasting him in the face with a crackling bolt of energy.

Giant Man shrunk down to fifteen feet, reeling. "Damn! He can discharge some sort of energy blast as well. I'm not sure how to stop him." Giant Man looked up to see several of the Wasp's blasts go through Willow the Wisp's body, each one causing that portion of him to be reduced to a glowing mist. It took him seconds to reform, each succeeding blast making him madder than before.

Thor found herself locked in a death grip with her attacker. The velocity he had struck her with, along with his considerable strength and weight, had momentarily winded her. Her hammer had actually been knocked out of her hands and to the ground at her feet. It might as well have been a mile away as she was given no chance to recover it. The Griffen was coming after her with his giant claws, trying to rake her face. She had his wrists in a tight grip, but he was continuing to use his superior height and weight against her, even his wings beat furiously, trying to give him additional force to maul her.

However, Thor had finally gotten a chance to get her wind back and bring more of her strength to bear. She began shoving the Griffen's claws away from her face.

"This ain't possible," the Griffen protested. "No frail can be stronger than me. I got the powers of a half dozen animals in me."

Speaking English with the same ease as she could Japanese, Thor said, "No mere animal can match the strength of the Goddess of Thunder."

Fear and desperation formed in the Griffen's eyes. "No! I didn't subject myself to Brand's mutagenics just so some bitch can kick my ass my first time out. I'm the Griffen! Do you understand? The fucking Griffen!"

Suddenly Thor found her progress halted, a surge of strength flowing through the Griffen. Once again they reached a stalemate. Worse, she saw him begin to subtly change. His human face began to lengthen, like an animal's snout. His body became more feline in nature, and a tail suddenly sprouted out from his tailbone. It was a long thing with spikes on it.

He roared in her face, more beast than human. Still the Avenger pressed on. She knew she would win eventually. She was the Goddess of Thunder She wouldn't have been too concerned save for one problem.

Her hammer had been out of her grasp for twenty seconds.

The Hulk wasn't faring much better. Part of the problem was the way the initial attack had happened. He had been knocked flat on his back, the large, bulky Manticore jumping right on him and ripping at him with his claws. The Hulk had grabbed the Manticore's wrists, in almost identical nature to Thor in her fight with the Griffen. The emerald behemoth had no leverage from this position, while Manticore's longer form had allowed him to use his rear claws to anchor himself to the dock itself. With superior height, he brought his full weight on top of the emerald giant.

"Stupid furry thing better get off Hulk," the giant warned as he began to shove Manticore away from him, despite the villain's advantage.

"I have a better idea. Let's see if secondary adamantium can carve your heart out of your chest."

The Hulk saw Manticore's mechanical tail swing up and in front of his face. There was an odd thing at the end of the tail, and there seemed to be some kind of tube in the end. Hulk found out the nature of the tube as a laser shot from it, hitting him right between the eyes, blinding and hurting him at the same time.

Hands reflexively going for his eyes, the Hulk released his hold on the claws, which dug into his shoulders. The combination of adamantium alloy and strength drove them into the Hulk's flesh, causing the Avenger to cry out in pain and as he bled.

Daredevil was beginning to tire. Killer Shrike wasn't just superhumanly strong and agile, he was highly trained in hand-to-hand combat. Even without the super-strength, Daredevil would have had his hands full, but with Shrike's ability to instantly change his height, it made predicting his moves nearly impossible. Hawkeye wasn't having much better luck either, having taken a few hard kicks early on which winded the archer badly. Daredevil was keeping Shrike off his comrade's back, but only at considerable cost to himself.

It might have gone better had he not been bothered by one of the other fight's occurring nearby. There was something off about Manticore, something that made him different from the other villains they were fighting.

And now the Hulk was having problems. Daredevil could hear Manticore's threats, not to mention the smell of blood coming from there. The Hulk's heart was pounding like a triphammer, and Manticore's was muted for some reason. That made no sense. Manticore was huge, like the Hulk, and in order to keep the blood flowing through a huge body like his, he'd have to….

That was it! That was what was different about him. And now Daredevil knew what to do.

He leapt back out of Killer Shrike's punches and kicks, positioning his body carefully. Killer Shrike, cautious at the sudden change in tactics, didn't pursue.

Daredevil began taunting. "Hey, Pesky Pigeon. I figured out your weakness, and here's where I take you out with it."

"I ain't got no weakness!" Killer Shrike shouted, but sounded slightly unsure of himself. Rather than drawing closer, Killer Shrike aimed and touched his gauntlets together, unleashing a maximum powered electrical discharge.

Daredevil leapt out of the way and allowed the blast to hit Manticore in the rear half of his huge body.

Manticore cried out in panic rather than pain, "No, you idiot. You're overloading me!"

Too late, there was an explosion that literally blew him in half. From the rear section could be seen nothing more than a set of complex circuitry and armor. From the upper half was a good bit of circuitry, as well as some reinforced armored section that remained intact, though horrible scorched.

The Hulk reached down and pulled the claws that had been racking him away from his body. He looked into Manticore's face, his breath heavy.

Manticore trembled. "Look, I'm a paraplegic." He indicated his upper half, which was too small for a man of normal dimensions to fit in. You wouldn't hurt a handicapped man, would you?"

"No, Hulk would not hurt little man with no legs."

"Thank god," Manticore sighed.

"Hulk would use little man with no legs as ball, though." And promptly threw him as hard as he could at the Griffen.

The upper torso of Manticore was on target as he struck fully into the Griffen's back, making the villain unleash a bestial bellow of pain (while Manticore was rendered unconscious). Reflexively the Griffen drew back, freeing Thor's hands. The Goddess of Thunder unleashed a full force punch right to the creature's snout, sending him into the side of the ship. He was hurled with such force that he bounced off the side of the ship and to the dock.

As Thor recovered her hammer, the Griffen began to rise, blinking his eyes free of their befuddlement.

"Zounds," Thor proclaimed. "Thou art truly a powerful beast to withstand my full godly might. But this fight must come to an end." Thor tapped the pommel of her hammer on the dock. In response a lightning bolt of unearthly size (and origin) struck the Griffen squarely. The beast's mane stood on end and he bellowed out in pain once more before falling to the dock, unconscious.

Surveying the sudden turn of events with fear, Killer Shrike swore at Daredevil as he turned to fly away. "You might have tricked me, Hornhead. But I promise you I'll be—"

A repulsor beam hit Killer Shrike in the back, sending him limply to the ground.

"Defeated?" Daredevil offered as he nudged the unmoving figure.

Iron Rose hovered in the air. "My apologies. Not only did that bizarre glowing man strike me with impressive force, but he sent some sort of bio-electricity into my armor, causing a momentary glitch. When I hit the water, my eye and mouth slits failed to lock into place, causing my armor to be flooded. It took a few seconds for me to reboot the system and cough up my lungs from the water I swallowed."

"Bio-electricity?" Hawkeye pondered that information while watching Giant Man take one to the chin from Willow the Wisp. The glowing man's strength was enough to knock the huge hero down to his knees. A couple of stings from the Wasp dissolved Willow the Wisp's arm and leg, but they quickly reformed. Iron Rose sent a repulsor blast through him, producing the same result.

"I told you I hate having to reform myself!" the blond shouted.

"Then you're really going to hate this," Hawkeye promised as the archer shot an arrow right at the flying man's chest.

Willow the Wisp looked down as the arrow went through him, causing the white symbol in the center to disperse into a cloud. "Fool, that won't do anything to me, other than making you the first to die!"

Willow the Wisp aimed his hand at Hawkeye, then noticed that though the arrow had passed clean through him, there was a wire of some kind attached to it, remaining in his center. He turned to see the arrow arcing toward the water. Looking closer at Hawkeye, he saw the other end of the cable in the archer's hand, and the direction the Avenger seemed inclined to throw it in: the ocean nearby.

"No!" Willow the Wisp cried out as both ends of the cable hit the water at the same time. His bio-electrical form grounded out, following the length of the wire into the ocean and dissipating into it.

Tigra found she had her furry hands full of rabid man dog. While she had the edge in agility, Warwolf was stronger. She might be landing three blows to his one, but the one he landed took as much a toll on her as the three on him. Even exchanging claw slashes didn't work; he was so enraged he ignored his bleeding wounds. He was more like a rabid dog than anything else.

Maybe the comparison was more apt than she realized. Tigra reevaluated her foe's state Warwolf had definitely become far more vicious as the fight progressed, no longer talking, just growling and attacking. That was odd since at the start of the fight she had him pegged as someone that lived for bragging about his might, real or imagined. Looking into his eyes, she saw there was no longer a hint of human intelligence in them; he had gone completely feral. Actually, his entire body appeared more canine than before, as though he was mutating before her eyes.

Some of his earlier remarks made Tigra consider a different strategy, one that would never have worked had he still possessed a lick of intelligence. She leapt a short distance away, then gave her back to him.

Warwolf continued growling until Tigra dropped to all fours, her body no longer giving off a sign of a desire to fight, but to engage in a different behavior. It made Warwolf pull up short, his anger abating.

Tigra looked over her shoulder and purred seductively at him. Then she wiggled her bottom invitingly.

That was all it took for Warwolf to go from rabid to amorous in the blink of an eye. He howled and ran for the girl.

A moment before he would have arrived, Tigra lashed out with her leg. Not having anything even remotely like a guard up, the kick caught Warwolf full in the chest, doubling him over. Tigra rose up and gave a two fisted blow to the back of his skull, knocking him out.

"Silly doggie, Tigra have too, too high standard than to want a Chihuahua when she can have Great Dane." She watched Captain Japan and how his fight was progressing.

Captain Japan felt more frustrated than ever as Tarantula kept up the offence. The only thing the hero could bring himself to do was use his shield to block the attacks.

"It saddens me that I must do battle with my role-model, but what must be must be." Tarantula lashed out with another kick.

Captain Japan suddenly realized something about Tarantula's attacks. No longer was he trying to impale the hero. Rather, he was just slashing, and not at any vital areas. Maybe the guy wasn't evil. If only he could understand what he was saying.

And then it happened. So wrapped up in trying to understand what was being said, and concentrating on the foot attacks, Tarantula feinted with a foot, then lashed out with a fist. It caught Captain Japan squarely on the jaw. It was followed up by an elbow to the head, and a punch to the gut. Last in the combination was a spike to the face.

Captain Japan blocked the foot, the stinger at the end no more than a centimeter away from his cheek. The hero looked at it, and thought he noticed an odd sheen coating it, as though it had been dipped in something.

Poison! Of course. How could he have been so stupid? That was why Tarantula was only trying to scratch him: that would be all it took to finish him off. Besides, real super-heroes didn't use objects to stab people. An energy blade, sure, but not metal spikes and poison.

Ignoring the Tarantula's gushing, Captain Japan remained defensive, but thought of a plan. The guy he was fighting was fast, in good shape, but most of his attacks were centered on using his foot spikes. Captain Japan came up with what he thought was a decent strategy and put it into effect.

He deliberately left an opening for a fist. Tarantula couldn't pass up the opportunity and punched him again. Captain Japan rolled with the blow, but made it appear he was stunned senseless as he dropped to the ground.

"Time to end the fight, Senor Captain." Tarantula brought one of his feet up and down, intent on using the spike on the hero's stomach.

Captain Japan rolled out of the way at the last second, allowing Tarantula to bury his stinger in the ground. Instantly the hero brought his shield at the point where spike met boot. He sheared it off without touching the foot.

"One spike is all I need!" Tarantula tried kicking Captain Japan while the hero was on his knees, but the Avenger grabbed the ankle and went for the boot. Tarantula kicked Captain Japan in the head with his 'stingerless' foot, freeing himself, but ripping the footgear from his leg in the process.

"I will not be defeated!" Tarantula tried to wrap his hands around Captain Japan's throat, but the hero was no longer holding back. A tremendous three punch and kick combination laid Tarantula out on his back.

The villain gasped, "No. I cannot be defeated by the likes of you. I have plans. The president has lied to the people, making promises he cannot possibly live up to. When the people realize he cannot give them their promised Utopia, or he will use force to keep his power, or have to give it up to the next person who will lie to them. I will seize power and be honest about it. I promise to kill anyone that will oppose my will! That is why I went to Brand and let them give me power! I will rule over all!"

Captain Japan watched as the body beneath Tarantula's body suit began to wiggle, as though something were trying to get out. Suddenly four spidery, segmented arms tore free of the outfit. Tarantula's eyes became compound, and his mouth changed to a set of pincers. His bandanna mask pulled free as his head became an exact, if large, version of his namesake.

Just as the hideous, transformed human was about to lunge for Captain Japan, a giant foot slammed down on top of the villain, knocking him out.

A fifty-foot Giant Man looked down at the group, who were staring up at him. "What? I thought bugs were supposed to be stepped on."

"You know it's one odd day when even Giant Man makes a funny," Daredevil said as he began passing out sets of chains to contain the villains.

Before Captain Japan could reply, Tigra sidled up to him, rubbing her body against his. "Captain did too, too good job in beating his silly foe."

"Away from him, harlot!" Thor shouted, storming over like her namesake to Captain Japan's side.

In response, Tigra ran a finger across Captain Japan's chest. "Silly Swede should mind own business and tie up lion thing before it kick her butt again."

Thor stood right next to the were-woman, hands on her hips in challenge. "I did see how low thou would stoop to defeating a foe, offering thy body like the basest whore to save thineself. Thou are even worse than the red-haired trollop who has made herself absent these last few weeks."

"Hey, Bucky ain't no trollop," Captain Japan defended.

Tigra stuck her tongue out at the goddess. "Silly Swede just jealous because it not work for her if she try it."

"Mine body is much better than thine!" She turned to Captain Japan. "Tell the furry wench who hath the best body."

"Bucky has the best body," Captain Japan said indignantly.

"She's right," Daredevil said, not so much because he agreed as it was jealousy at Captain Japan getting so much attention. A cat fight might shock the girls to their senses and realize he was an egomaniac unworthy of such attention.

Thor appeared ready to summon a storm that would drown the Eastern seaboard with a storm of the ages. Iron Rose loathed the fact her armor hid her svelte figure too well to be compared. Hawkeye quietly seethed at choosing to cross-dress since she was sure she had the best body. Wasp wondered if she wasn't being considered since she was small most of the time. Tigra seemed unaffected, continuing to caress the object of her affection's chest. Captain Japan became uncomfortable at the idea of Daredevil getting turned on by his cursed form. Giant Man only wanted to go home and rub ointment on the burns Willow the Wisp had inflicted on him.

The Hulk made his presence known by interjecting, "Everyone is wrong. Hulk has best body. See?" he flexed his huge muscles for everyone's benefit.

A Hulk posedown killed the argument more effectively than if the Mandarin and Man Beast had suddenly attacked.

As the heroes secured the villains and the crew of the ship, Captain Japan said to Iron Rose, "It looks like that tip you got from Jones was on the ball. Again."

"Yes, Brand's new owner seems far too interested in creating SPBs for my taste, especially ruthless ones like these," Iron Rose said.

"And I repeat, I don't like the idea of doing Roxxon's dirty work," Daredevil snarled.

"They aren't acting on any corrupt or illegal impulses," Iron Rose assured him. "This is revenge on Jones' part for being outmaneuvered by someone who used illegal tactics in taking control of the company he sought. It just so happens that Roxxon's goals coincides with ours in keeping these evil villains from being smuggled into our country to wreak untold havoc, like the Serpent Society tried to do."

The Hulk added his opinion. "Hulk still doesn't like snakes."

Ignoring the Hulk's commentary, Hawkeye said, "Besides, shutting down Brand might be a good idea. I'm not so sure these guys that mutated knew that was going to happen to them."

"They need to be turned over to the authorities so the damage can be undone to them," Giant Man agreed.

"We're making this too complicated," Wasp said as she flew around her teammates, asserting her presence despite her diminutive size. "These are bad guys, and it's our job to stop them."

"Smashing bad guys is good," Hulk said, walking over to Tigra and started petting her long mane of hair.

"True," Thor said, a brief instance of not having an excuse to turn into her godly form, of being trapped as a cripple, sending a chill down her spine.

"It's not that I'm arguing with the results," Daredevil insisted. "And I do want to see Brand pay for their obviously illegal deeds. What I'm saying is we're making a deal with the devil in dancing to Jones' tune."

"He hasn't manipulated us into anything." Iron Rose said a touch vehemently. It wasn't that Daredevil was hitting to close to home, she assured herself. While it was true Jones was supplying her with valuable information on whoever was buying up stock in her company, that was not why she acted on the information he gave her. Had she discovered Brand trying to do these things, she would have insisted they be stopped anyway. Where was the harm in profiting while doing the right thing? There was none.

There was a two front battle going on, and the rest of the Avengers were only aware of half of it. After all, if anything untoward happened to Kunou Industries, who would finance the Avengers, giving them equipment and even salaries? Their effectiveness would be reduced by half, if not three-quarters. No, this was good for everyone. Though Daredevil might have a point in keeping a close eye on Jones. She didn't really trust him very far. Only as long as their goals coincided. But as long as they did, she would milk the connection for everything she could.

It was just business, after all, and she was a businesswoman with responsibilities beyond that of the Avengers. That was the way of things, and that was that.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

The next day found Ranma yawning as he made his way downstairs to the kitchen. Superheroing had been hard work, and at times made him wonder if leading a dual life was really worth it, but one look at a map of where Mexico City had been squashed that line of thinking. Like his father had said, it was a dirty, strenuous job, but it needed doing, and Ranma Saotome was the right guy to do it.

Still, he would be relieved once he graduated high school. Things would be easier after that. Technically being an Avenger was a job, and he drew a nice salary from it. Not that he was doing it for the money, just that it was good to know he wouldn't have to find a job that would allow him to save the world when the need arose. At least he had today off from school, though his father had informed him they would be going out training later. Being both superhero and martial artist had to be balanced along with his grades. At least the first two complemented one another.

As Ranma passed by the bathroom, he saw the occupied sign hanging on it. Damn women. Sometimes it seemed like they rotated on a schedule so that at any given time one of them was in there. Not wanting to stand around and wait, and that he was feeling hungry, he decided to hit the kitchen and see if he could nab some food from Kasumi before breakfast officially started.

Ranma entered to see Kasumi cooking away. Looking closely at her, he noticed dark rings under her eyes. Now that he thought about, she had taken some sort of job with Kunou Industries, and was dividing her time between home and work. Ranma did not envy her. The life of a salaryperson had to be the pits. Still, someone of Kasumi's placid disposition was probably suited for Cubicle Hell. Ranma would throw himself into an active volcano before allowing himself to be chained to such a place.

"Got anything I can grab for a quick bite?" Ranma asked.

Kasumi turned to see Ranma. He had startled her. She had needed to focus on the cooking since she was still tired from last night, and a bit vexed that she hadn't knocked out any of the bad guys herself. She didn't want the others to think she wasn't pulling her own weight. Well, at Wasp size, her weight was basically non-existent, but she knew what she meant.

Ranma moved next to her, and Kasumi felt her heart beat a little faster. She had to look up to peer into his eyes, and she was on the tall side for her age. And his chest, why, it was nearly as massive as Captain Japan's. Ranma was certainly built very maturely for his age, and handsome. He really wasn't the bad sort, but she still had no interest in marrying him. She hoped he showed an interest in one of her sisters soon to deflect her father's constant attempts in trying to fix her up with him.

Really! Where did her father get off implying she was getting too old to marry? She was extremely young, and had plenty of time to settle down and raise a family. If anything, settling down was the last thing in the world she wanted since she had discovered how exciting living a little was. Lately she was finding it a strain to force herself to keep hearth and home for her family. It wouldn't hurt them to help out a little, especially now since she had a job that was so much more fun than cooking. The most exciting thing cleaning entailed was attacking dust bunnies. Yuck!

"Tell me, Ranma, you wouldn't want to have to clean and cook all day, would you?" Kasumi suddenly asked.

Ranma was taken aback by the question. "Heck no. I'd go nuts if I had to do it."

"Good." Then she was normal in her desires. Kasumi felt reassured if she mentioned it to her father. She had some defense against a contention that there was something wrong with her for losing interest in what she had been doing for the last couple of years.

As Kasumi looked at Ranma, an errant thought occurred to her, one that she had put off for a while. Over the last week, she had wondered how to approach him about the matter. Now it seemed was a good time to broach the subject. "Ranma, do you know a Ryouga Hibiki? He'd be from your time in jr. high"

"That name sounds familiar." Ranma scratched his head as he searched his memories. After a full minute, he snapped his fingers. "Yeah, I remember him. Strong guy. Bad direction sense. Couldn't find his way out of a paper bag. We were friends until I learned he went around bullying people behind my back. He'd cook up these unbelievable stories to deny it and try to paint himself the victim, but I could see through him."

"Actually, I don't think they were stories." Kasumi explained what Ryouga had told her, deleting minor details, like the whole superhero thing. And that Ryouga turned into the Hulk, of course. It took surprisingly little reworking of the story.

Ranma had the decency to appear embarrassed. But then he recovered and took the offensive. "He might be lying."

"I highly doubt Ryouga would follow you for years to make a ridiculous lie seem believable."

"Well, Ryouga might."

"Ranma," Kasumi reproached.

Ranma held his hands up in surrender. "Okay. I was wrong… probably. But can you blame me? Who would know there really was an invisible girl. Before, you know, the Fantastic Four went public."

Sensing the convincing stage of the matter settled, Kasumi moved on to the second, and most important, part of the discussion. "In any case, you owe Ryouga an apology."

Now Ranma looked like a petulant child. But he couldn't seem to bring himself to argue with Kasumi. "Yeah, I guess," he muttered.

"Good. Now I know he's still looking for you, but with his poor direction sense, there's no telling when he might run into you. But when he does show up, you have to absolutely promise me you won't fight him."

Ranma became defensive. "It ain't like I go out of my way to pick fights, and I remember him well enough to recall he doesn't exactly have the best temper."

"Promise me, Ranma. It's very important to me." Because she didn't want Ranma dead. She recalled the Hulk flying off into periodic rages and the ensuing results, which was why she was eliciting the same promise from Ranma she had cajoled from Ryouga. If Ryouga 'Hulked out' on Ranma, it would be curtains for the youth, and she didn't want the fiancé issue dropped for a little reason like Ranma being smashed into a puddle of goo. Under no circumstances could Ranma be allowed to fight Ryouga. Since Ryouga seemed to be a man of his word, like Ranma, she was fairly certain the matter could be resolved without bloodshed.

Seeing she wouldn't budge, Ranma snapped a "Fine. I promise."

Kasumi's mood brightened instantly. "Now in appreciation, I'll cook your favorite dinner tonight."

Soun and Genma suddenly burst into the room, nearly stumbling over one another as they moved next to Ranma and Kasumi.

Tears welled in Soun's eyes. "Oh, Daughter, how wonderful. Not only are you guiding Ranma with your greater experience, but you're cooking a special dish for him."

Genma added, "And his favorite is matsuzaka beef teriyaki."

"It is not! That's your favorite dish!" Ranma snapped.

"Father, that's not it at all," Kasumi sighed, repressing a naughty urge to sting both men for their efforts to complicate her life.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"I swear to god, Pop, if you say one more word about how me and Kasumi go together like chocolate and peanut butter, I'm going see which breaks first: my shield or your head." He waved the newspaper-covered shield in front of the older man.

Genma scoffed. "Boy, all I'm saying is you can do worse than a girl that can cook and keep house. Martial artists don't have time for that sort of thing, so it's up to their wives to do it for them. It's one of the reasons I married your mother."

"Really? It seems to me she still has plenty of time to form a group that wants the head of her son, and his 'whore' partner, on a silver platter."

"Er, yes. She has been engaging in activities outside the home, evidently," Genma admitted. "In any case, we'll have a good training session today. I'm going to teach you moves a super-villain can only dream about. In combination with the ultimate defense in your shield, you'll unequivocally be voted as the most prestigious hero in all of Japan, if not the entire world."

"I think you might want to keep the proclamations of my becoming the next emperor down." Ranma held a finger to his lips.

"Oh, yes, that shadow we picked up when we left the home," Genma said. "I was hoping she'd have lost us by now, but it appears Nabiki is not one to leave her curiosity unsatisfied. It is good to know she's skilled enough to keep up while remaining stealthy. You could do worse than marrying her."

"A second ago you were trying to foist me off on Kasumi!" Ranma snapped.

"All I'm saying is you could do worse than a wife that can spar with you on almost even terms."

Ranma suppressed the urge to start beating on Genma. He could wait until they started training to do it. He'd beat on the old fart enough to turn the Hulk black and blue.

"In any case, we're going to have to ditch her before we can train, since I want you to incorporate your shield with the techniques." Genma held his hand to his chin in thought. "Ah, I have it. You keep heading to the rendezvous point. I'll distract her and make her lose your trail, then join you later when I've given her the slip."

"How are you going to keep her from following you?"

"I'll ask her if she wants to join me."

Xxxxxxxxx

Nabiki clung to corners and alleyways as best as she could, trailing the Saotomes. She didn't think they were on to her yet. One of the earliest skills she had cultivated when she was forced to learn martial arts was stealth. She actually liked that one, as it enabled her to eavesdrop on all sorts of conversations. Information was money, after all, and a far more effective tool than muscle, as far as she was concerned. Getting someone to do something for you with a few select words was much easier than doing it yourself.

And Nabiki wanted information from Ranma. For far too long she had put off figuring out what was up with Ranma's 'Lucky Hubcap' that he toted around off and on, keeping it hidden from her. His secrecy made her want to discover the truth all the more. Yes, she had found an actual hubcap when she looked under the paper it was wrapped in, but it couldn't be that simple. There was something else tucked away somewhere that was the truth behind the mystery, and she was going to find it today.

A problem suddenly cropped up as the pair came to a fork in the road. Genma went one way while Ranma went in the other. She thought they had intended to train together. Now what was going on?

Nabiki had to make a choice fast. Ranma was the one with the actual hubcap, so she'd stick with him. She took one last look at Genma, then left. She took the precaution of keeping a close eye behind her, in case she had been discovered and Genma was planning to take her from the rear.

Nabiki followed Ranma for three blocks, and believed he was starting to suspect her presence, when she suddenly found her way blocked by a massive mountain of black and white fur.

"What the hell?" Nabiki said, stunned at the sudden appearance of a panda right in her path.

The animal held up a sign. Long time, no see.

Oh, right, the panda from the night the freaky mask gang had attacked her. "Out of the way." She tried to walk around him.

The panda moved his bulk between her and her prey, who had already left her field of vision. I was wondering if you'd like to become a super-hero. Perhaps a partner to that man among men, that hero among heroes: Captain Japan?

Nabiki recoiled. "I'd sooner dump boiling grease on myself than put on some dumb costume and go looking for trouble."

Become a super-hero and that might very well happen to you.

"Forget it!" Nabiki snapped, truly angry. The stupid panda had blown her cover and Ranma had eluded her. Knowing he was tipped off, he'd be on his guard. Best to cut her loses and give Bucky's 'animal sidekick' the slip.

Still, there would be other days to discover the truth to Ranma. Nabiki Tendou could be patient when it mattered.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Dr. Tofu took another hit from the bottle he had tucked in his desk, feeling morose as he scratched at the burns he suffered from last night. Actually, the ointment he had applied had healed them, and it was probably only phantom pain, but it was almost as though he wanted to feel them. Yet another reason to give up the stupid costume and go back to the normal life of a doctor.

But he couldn't. Kasumi was totally wrapped up in her role as Wasp. She was almost like a different person when she shrunk down to insect size, one he didn't like. Wasp was flirtatious, violent, and far too flighty. Kasumi was not that way. She was really quiet, reliable, beautiful, and did not come on to anyone. She was normal. Maybe she had some sort of latent multiple personality disorder that had been triggered by her transformation.

Tofu took another swig, savoring the sensation of warmth as it moved through his gut to rest in his stomach. Oh how he wished he had never met Hank Pym, or built his machine. Tofu had enough sense to dismantle it, unwilling to experiment with it further. It had sown too much chaos into his life already, and that outweighed any potential gains the Pym Particles might create.

There was movement outside in the reception area. That was Akane, who had been kind enough to come in on her day off to help him inventory things. She was such a sweet girl, like Kasumi used to be. Maybe he'd tell Kasumi to start taking lessons from her sister on what it meant to be normal.

Yes, that was it. The next time he met Kasumi, he'd put his foot down and demand she stop this nonsense and go back to being the sweet, normal girl who did not shrink and shoot people whenever the opportunity presented itself. And then he could burn his own ridiculous costume and put this horrid experience behind them.

Tofu was slouching in his seat, fantasizing what it would be like to have Kasumi cook for him at his home while he worked on genuinely helping people in a positive way as a doctor, when he heard Kasumi's voice drift through the door. She was here? Great! Now he could tell her the way things would be and then propose to her so she'd say yes and they could get married right now.

Tofu stormed up to the door and threw it open. Indeed, there was Kasumi, standing in the middle of the room, Akane next to her. Tofu straightened his brown gi so he could look his best as he laid down the law.

Kasumi waved pleasantly, oblivious to any irregularity to the doctor's behavior. "Hello, Dr. Tofu."

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the 'winsome' one herself," Tofu said with a touch of surliness. He walked toward Kasumi, intent on giving her a piece of his mind.

As Tofu drew closer, the haze provided by the alcohol disappeared as a far thicker fog covered his senses and colored his perception. There was Kasumi, at normal size, in a normal dress, standing in all her divine glory. He had forgotten what he was going to say. Forgotten everything as he entered a love-induced delirium.

Glasses fogged, Tofu walked over to Kasumi, smiling blissfully. "It's so nice to see you again, Kasumi. I hoped you had a nice flight and didn't encounter any super-villains."

"No, I didn't, Dr. Tofu," Kasumi said.

"You're holding Betty-chan's hand, Dr. Tofu," Akane said in a tired voice.

Tofu examined the hand in his grasp. "I see you have metacarpal syndrome, Kasumi. Let's take you in back and see if I can't do something for your condition." He escorted the skeleton back to the room.

"Dr. Tofu's so silly," Kasumi said.

Akane pouted. But there was one thing that had happened that gave her more hope than she had had in ages. Dr. Tofu had not gone goofy the instant he laid eyes on Kasumi. In fact, for the briefest of moments, he had almost sounded irritated with her. That could only mean one thing: he was starting to realize Kasumi was all wrong for him.

A smile crossed Akane's face as she envisioned what life would be like with herself and Dr. Tofu as the ultimate team as doctor and faithful nurse, as well as husband and faithful wife.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

And then there was light.

It happened in a bright, blinding flash. They remembered a blinding flash once before. One that consumed them, and then there was nothing but darkness. Luckily, their thoughts had also been as shut down, just like their optical nerves had been, keeping them from going mad during their time in purgatory. But not preventing them from being angry at their imprisonment.

The brightness of the light toned down. Pupils went from narrow, vertical slits to something wider. They were in a room, high tech in nature, judging by the huge number of computers lining it. They stood on a platform in the center of the room, and it was obvious that all the machines served the platform in some way.

There were ninety of them on the glowing platform, a glow that was slowly dwindling away. Phantom Cats all of various shapes and sizes. Both genders were represented in equal amount.

Looking around the room, the Phantom Cats saw a number of dead humans strewn about. A dozen in all, dressed in the same uniform, indicating their membership in Hound. They all had vicious, fatal claw wounds all over their bodies, and in some cases their throats were ripped out.

Standing among the bodies was a woman, dressed in a uniform that proclaimed her an agent of SHIELD. She was attractive, in her late-twenties with jet black hair that traveled halfway down her back. The way she stood among the carnage was as casual, as if she were standing in a field of flowers.

One of the Phantom Cats with tawny fur stepped forward. The rest of them deferred to him, instincts to their pride's order automatically kicking in. He approached the human woman, claws flexing, as though he were preparing to use them.

If the woman was afraid, she showed no sign. "Greetings, Cougar, and welcome back to the land of reality rather than virtual hell you were consigned to."

Cougar walked up to her until she was within reach of his claws. "Who are you?"

The woman was nonchalant at Cougar's close proximity. She shifted forms as black hair sprouted from her face and body. Her hands became fur-covered paws, and her features took on a feline cast. "My name is Raven. I used my status as a SHIELD agent to discover your location and free you. Luckily, Hound never expected infiltration from an outside source from an agency like SHIELD. With the disarray my organization has been thrown into since the UN takeover, it was easy for me to make it seem as though the higher ups wanted an inspection of the Hound containment facility to make certain the Geneva accords were not being violated."

"We're covered under the Geneva convention?" Cougar asked.

"Of course not, which was Hound's point of contention. In order to smooth the waters, they allowed me to inspect the facility. I inspected it very thoroughly." She waved a hand about the room.

Cougar admired her handiwork. "Well, since I know damn well Black Cat didn't order you to free us, I have to wonder exactly why it is you decided to place yourself at risk and forego your infiltrator status?"

Raven's eyes narrowed slightly. "Events have transpired since your confinement. Although I am not privy to it, I know that Black Cat has put a plan into motion which he believes will bring the humans to their knees. But that has become secondary to something else that has occurred. After centuries of waiting, the Tigra has returned."

Every Phantom Cat in the room gasped. Even Cougar was dumbfounded by the information.

"You are certain?" he asked, trembling.

"Yes. She proclaimed her return on nationwide television under the guise of a superhero, a member of the Avengers."

Cougar's eyes took in a calculating gleam. "With the return of the Tigra, the position of Balkatar is more important than ever. The right cat is needed for the job, lest we lose this once in a millennium opportunity." He turned to his fellow Phantom Cats. "The prophecies are specific. This is our time, brothers and sisters, friends and even rivals. Our glorious future, one that past generations have only dreamed of, has fallen into our hands. The legend can at long last become a reality, and with the return of the Tigra, we can finally reunite with our pride, trapped for centuries from their rightful home. And if our current Balkatar is found wanting in any way, I promise you I will personally take the title and usher in a new era of prosperity the likes of which our race has never seen."

The Phantom Cats cheered at the top of their lungs in almost religious fervor, then ran out of the room, destiny on their minds.

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

Hundreds of televisions and computer screens lined the walls of the colossal chamber. Two beings waited in the massive room. One sat in a chair that was more akin to a throne, dead center in the web of technology surrounding her. She dominated the very air in a way only the greatest could: an empress in an electronic kingdom.

And next to her, a man that was servitude personified, almost painfully handsome, with curly blond locks that fell to his shoulders. His features were European, and he waited with stoic calm next to the seated woman.

At the moment, all of the television screens showed the Avengers engaged in various acts. Some depicted four of them taking on a saucer-shaped vehicle, destroying it. Others held images of the Serpent Squad falling like wheat before the scythe. Yet others portrayed the defeat of the variety of figures that Brand Corporation had tried to infiltrate into the country.

"I grow tired of these meddlesome interlopers, Ozymandias," the woman said, the image of Poison One being torn to pieces reflected in her eyes.

"And what would you like done with them, Mistress?" the man asked.

"I would have them know pain that would make even the gods tremble. Suffering that a million people combined could not match. An agony so severe that they would go insane, then, in seeking to flee from it, be driven back to sanity.

"But I'll settle for them dying."

"Shall I take care of it personally?" Ozymandias offered. "With my abilities, I should be able to kill them. I can handle eight templates and still have room to spare."

The woman shook her head. "No, you are unique and irreplaceable. While I am confident you could slay them, it would be foolish to risk a bishop when a pawn can be used. Or two, in this case."

"You have someone in mind?" Ozymandias asked.

The woman punched a button in the control unit built into the arm of her throne. The screens in the room changed, flashing the images of two women. The older of the two, who might be just out of her teens, was dressed in a good bit of leather. She used a different weapon in each screen, all of them to deadly effect. From the looks of things she had killed dozens of men on a variety of occasions. The other was a child, barely out of her teens. She was cute, in a childlike manner. A number of fires wracked most of the scenes she was shown in, as though explosions had recently occurred.

The woman spoke. "They come highly recommended. A business associate of mine, Wilson Fisk, mentioned them when I related my woes to him. They are the best hit team in Chicago, and possibly the whole United States. Originally, they were a pair of bounty hunters that fell into the clutches of a bitch, lesbian, Mafia princess by the name of Goldie. She used the hypnotic narcotic, Kerosene, to enslave them to her. She used one as her personal hit-woman and sex toy, while the other, deemed useless, was used in some sort of experiment altering DNA. It turned her into an SPB. Unfortunately for Goldie, the pair eventually received a bad batch of Kerosene that turned them psychotic and uncontrollable, even with further exposure to normal Kerosene. They killed Goldie and everyone in her organization. Fisk managed to avert an outright war between them and the other families, convincing the pair to let bygones be bygones and advised them to become independent pros. They've racked up a high number of kills over time, including a handful of SPBs.

"The tall, darker-skinned one is Rally 'Bullseye' Vincent, who's reputed to never miss, no matter what weapons she uses. Her partner, the small blonde that looks like a child, is Minnie-May Hopkins, aka Nitro, the Exploding Girl.

"Collectively they're known as the Gunsmith Cats, and they are going to assassinate the Avengers."

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

End chapter

Mad Dog was indeed used by Hojo from Inu Yasha in Avenging's sister title: Defending. Buzz 'Mad Dog' Baxter's wife is indeed Patsy Walker.

DB Sommer: Member of the Fanfiction Mailing List since '97. Come on and join the fun for some good C+C and stories. Just send an email to with 'subscribe ffml' in subject line and you're in. 


	30. Act III Animal Farm Chap 6

Avenging Act III, The Animal Farm Chapter 6

Any and all C+C appreciated. You can contact me at: the previous chapters and my other works are stored at:

Larry F's new address at:  
newer works at Mediaminer disclaimer: I don't own any of the Marvel characters or other characters from the numerous animes which are within.

Here's a great reference guide for many character and objects in the Marvel Universe.

chapter: The heroes prevented a group of villains created by the Brand Corporation from entering Japan, angering the mysterious woman whose plans they've been unknowingly thwarting. Now she's sending for a pair of hitwomen known as the Gunsmith Cats to eliminate them. Also the Phantom Cats are on the move with the reappearance of 'The Tigra', a figure important to them.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sasuke, loyal manservant cum ninja, waited patiently in the underground hanger that housed the Avengers' quinjets. One of the vehicles had just landed, returning with the quartet of heroes that had set out to stop the latest threat to the world, or at least to the peace and quiet of the citizenry in a small town.

The landing ramp had barely touched the floor when Bucky walked out, covered nearly head to toe in some sort of grey, viscous substance that clung to her athletic form. The thick residue even adhered to her shield. Close behind her was Thor, appearing none the worse for wear.

The moment her foot left the ramp, Bucky turned and snapped at the goddess, "I can't believe you threw me at that Quagmire guy!"

"It did seem the best way to dispatch the villain," Thor answered.

"You just didn't want to get muddy!"

Thor looked down at the girl. Despite Bucky's not-inconsiderable height, the goddess towered well above her. "Loki did once trick mineself into entering the Tar Pits of Joutenheim. T'was an experience I care not to repeat for the rest of mine immortal life."

"What makes you think I want to experience it?!"

While Bucky fumed, Daredevil finally came out of the quinjet as well, covered in some of the grime as well, though considerably less than what Bucky was coated in. "That was thoroughly disgusting." He struggled to remove the gray material, but the viscous goo clung tightly. "Whatever this glop is, it's not a natural substance. It feels… off, like it doesn't belong in this world. Maybe even this dimension."

Wasp flew by, bereft of mud, but seemingly as unhappy as Bucky. "Yes, it was disappointing today. I expected a real fight instead of some silly person whose abilities consisted of making and throwing mud."

"You ain't covered in this crap! It's thick and nasty, and he only hit me with two globs of it. My suit's probably trashed," Bucky lamented.

Daredevil turned to his diminutive teammate. "I forgot to ask earlier, but where is your other half, anyway?"

Wasp responded just a touch peevishly. "I'm a big girl, relatively speaking. I can handle myself. I don't need Giant Man constantly looking over my shoulder all the time."

"All right. I'm sorry," Daredevil assured her. The rebuke made him revert to his more aloof self. "I'm heading out."

"As will I," Wasp said and flew off.

"I shall remain here for a little while," Thor announced.

Bucky looked down at her outfit. "I'm gettin' a shower, since I don't want to walk around town looking like I just wallowed in a mud bath or something."

Sasuke was at her side in an instant. "I can prepare a bath for you, Mistress Bucky."

"I ain't no one's mistress, no matter what Mom… I mean, that Mrs. Saotome and the Citizens Against Immoral Superheroes say!"

"Of course," Sasuke bowed, apologetic and a touch cowed.

Thor glanced at Bucky with a look of incredulity. "Of course thou are not. Thou simply loses thy clothing at inopportune times, and with regularity."

"I kept my clothes on this time!" Bucky snapped. Thankfully. If they had gotten torn, she doubted she would ever have heard the end of Thor complaining about her 'Nude Mud Wrestling' or something similar.

"I can take my own shower," Bucky assured the manservant as she headed for the elevator that would take her up to Avenger's mansion.

It didn't take long for Bucky to reach the baths. She decided palatial was the most accurate descriptor. The residents of what had been formerly known as Kunou Manor had obviously enjoyed the pampered lifestyle that came with great wealth. Given the fixtures, art design, and marble, Bucky wagered the bathroom cost as much as the Tendou home.

Still, for all its excess, it was fully functional. Bucky doffed her uniform, noting that it was indeed trashed. The mud-like substance clung more tightly than tar, and did feel weird, not like normal mud at all. Luckily she had a couple of spare uniforms stored at Avengers Mansion for just such emergencies. Some for herself, and some for 'Captain Japan'. She'd grab an extra set before she left.

There were actually two separate showers in the large bathroom in addition to a bath so large it could hold two Hulks. She chose the largest shower, one that was enclosed in glass to the far side of the baths. She closed the door and turned on the hot water. Instantly, Ranma changed from female to male.

As the water struck his skin, Ranma had to admit, the shower was much nicer than anything the Tendous had. Maybe he'd grab a bath as well and really relax after a hard day of superheroing. 

Steam filled the shower as Ranma worked to remove the sticky gunk that Quagmire had doused him with. At least Ranma had gotten a measure of revenge when Thor had tossed him at the mud-slinger, cracking the bad guy in the jaw with his shield and knocking him out. While not a complete boob, (Ranma had a feeling that if a healthy amount of that junk affixed itself to his head he might have suffocated) Quagmire was not going to go down as one of their greatest villains. Dirtiest, perhaps, but not dangerous.

Xxxxxxxx

Thor stood outside the baths, then made her decision. In truth, she did not want to return to her mortal form and go home. She had finished school, and Dr. Tofu had his half-day, which meant Akane couldn't go to work. There were no upcoming tests and she had spent so little time with Yuka and Sayuri she was uncertain if they were even friends anymore. She was understandably reluctant to call them simply to relieve her boredom. She had just been hanging around at home when the emergency call had come in. She had been eager to change and kick villainous butt, even if it was from some goof whose super ability was making mud pies. Now, with the mission over, she was looking for any excuse to remain in environs that were more uplifting rather than returning to her normal, crippled self.

So why not take a shower? Besides, she could flaunt her superior godly attributes in Bucky's face, and let it be known that when it came to looks, the sidekick stood no chance in any contest. A pity the Captain couldn't be there to see it, so she could put his claim of 'Bucky having the best body' to shame.

Thor entered the baths, spotting the shower Bucky had entered. Steam filled the glass enclosure, blocking Thor's view of the girl.

Thor began removing her raiment, leaving the clothing on the floor, well away from the muddy ruins of Bucky's uniform. While it was true that two taps of the hammer could replace Thor's clothing if it got dirty (and saved her from trying to wash it behind Kasumi's back), it was still better she had avoided being doused in the gummy goo that Quagmire had been hurling about. Far better the harlot Bucky be offered up as the proverbial sacrificial lamb for that.

Thor suddenly encountered a quandary when it came to her hammer. It was only now she realized she had never taken a shower as a goddess before, the magic of her transformations seeming to take care of the matter of dirt and grime, if not injuries. What little time she spent as Thor was not meant to be wasted in bathing herself, so she had never bothered taking one in godly form. But now that she had decided to try it out, she couldn't leave the hammer out of contact for more than sixty seconds, and she had no wish to try to shower in that amount of time. With Bucky present, she could not revert to her mortal form. Too many questions would result from that. Now she was at an impasse. It would be best to find out how much longer Bucky would take. If it would be for a while, then perhaps she would simply return home.

The goddess looped the thong over her wrist and carried the hammer with her to the shower. As she drew near, she could see Bucky's nude flesh through the thick mist. Curiously, she appeared larger than before, almost the size of Captain Japan, and her hair seemed darker. Truly the fog was thick to provide such illusions.

Thor placed her hand on the door to the shower and announced, "Harlot, how much longer will thou… take?"

The instant Thor spoke, she could see the girl stiffen, and for just a moment she swore, swore, that it was instead Ranma in the shower. Closing her eyes and rubbing them, Thor reopened them. By then enough mist filtered out that she could clearly see it was indeed Bucky in the shower.

Now why had she envisioned Ranma being there? True he was a hunky guy, and from what Nabiki had claimed, very… big, but Akane had never fantasized about him. Dr. Tofu all the time, Captain Japan, to be certain, and a handful of other males that met her criteria for what constituted a handsome man. Although when it came to dreams, some of her fantasies were more like nightmares, since they involved women. Some very vivid, and all of them entailed her being Thor, though different from her current from. In what way she never remembered, just that she was different. That she tended to enjoy said nightmares until after she awoke, and the full repercussions of them hit her, disturbed her further.

Still, she supposed fantasizing about Ranma taking a shower was far better than some of the things she had dreamed of doing with Sif or some other divine beauty.

"Hey, what are you doing busting in here, naked?" Bucky snarled, snapping Thor out of her reverie.

Thor looked at the girl. She was truly a buxom wench, covered in water made her look surprisingly erotic. Thor's eyes began to travel down the girl's finely-toned body when she realized what was happening. Truly her bizarre, inappropriate, perverted nightmares were affecting her. She wondered if some villain was invading her dreams and trying to twist her to his cause. If so, there was much the foul letch would have to answer for.

And speaking of answers, Bucky appeared to desire one. She had covered up as best she could with her hands and arms. That made Thor uneasy. She did not think she had been eyeing the girl that openly.

"I simply came to see if thou were finished thy shower so that I might use it."

"With your hammer?" Bucky pointed at the weapon

"Mjolnir is never far from my side."

"Must make going to the toilet awkward."

"Thou dost not know the half of it." It was then a splash of water hit Thor. "Eh? This water is cold."

Bucky squirmed, "Uh, yeah. I gotta go. Bye." She raced out of the shower, grabbed a towel, and ran out of the bathroom.

Thor scratched her head, bewildered as to what had just happened. She couldn't remember ever seeing Bucky unmasked before, but the girl had looked familiar. She was certain she had never seen the girl out of uniform, though, Thor would remember someone of Bucky's hair and build, but still the nagging sensation remained of her being familiar in some way.

At least Thor felt a touch of pride at Bucky being intimidated at the presence of a naked goddess. Truly the girl must have felt her femininity threatened by being in close proximity to one so much her superior, which was why she had run off.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Councilwoman Juna Ariyoshi sat alone in her office. It was decorated a touch on the extravagant side, with expensive furnishings that few people could afford. It wasn't ostentatious, though, unlike some of her more detestable fellow politicians that flaunted their wealth, most of it ill-gotten from the people. It was tasteful, enough to impress that she was well off without being vulgar.

Juna was alone at the moment, as she preferred. Being a government official meant dealing with every kind of sycophant, from butt kissers to people wanting favors, both of a monetary nature and otherwise. That she was becoming increasingly popular and influential meant there were more of them than ever vying for her attention. There were times when she was tempted to pass legislation barring some of the more repulsive bottom feeders from being allowed to go out in public. Unfortunately all too often those were the ones who had the most money. As though they could buy her. Oh, she allowed them to think they were. She'd use the scum until they had no further use, then she'd give them the treatment they deserved. While she knew she was an honest person, some people weren't worthy of honesty, and deserved to be treated the way they treated others.

Not that everyone she had to deal with was human trash. Many were visionaries who agreed with her viewpoints and condoned the changes she wished to make. They were helping her spearhead the movement which would save the nation, and then the world, from the political and economic morass so many of the current regime had mired them in. And if in helping change the world for the better, they positioned themselves to take advantage of it, it just proved their foresight and wisdom in seeing what needed to be done in helping to make their vision a reality. They should hardly be penalized for their actions. They were trying to change things for the betterment of all, and that was the most important thing. The only thing.

Unfortunately, there was something else currently on Juna's mind other than a brighter future. It angered her beyond anything since learning of the government's clandestine war against the cat people (she refused to refer to them by that ridiculous 'Phantom Cat' nomenclature the government applied to them. Dehumanizing them made it so much easier to murder them). The target of her ire was obvious and blatant, unlike Irie and his secret paramilitary organization. It was those self-appointed vigilantes called the Avengers, and their reprehensible actions in murdering the tragic figure of the ill-named 'Man Beast'.

While Juna had no direct links to the ALF, she sympathized with them and their ideology. She didn't really object to their methods either, at least unofficially. The handful of times some vexing reporter tried railroading her by asking for her stance on the more violent aspects of the movement, she managed to deflect the trick question by pointing out the basic root of the problem was the institutionalized abuse of animals and the steps needing to be done to eradicate it. And then she put that reporter on the 'do not talk to list', for asking loaded questions like that.

But if Juna had no direct links to the organization, she knew people that were knowledgeable of its inner workings. She was careful never to reveal that, or converse in such matters, with close-minded company. She also made certain that the information she received were all 'rumors' and 'second-hand,' in case anyone accused her of being privy to some of the ALF's less legal activities.

When Juna learned the details of Man Beast's tragic origins, she approved of his heading the organization. She had not been enthused by some of the recent… excesses of the group, though she could understand the frustration they felt over the lack of progress being made in dealing with animals and the environment. Oh, a part of her cheered for them, but only on the inside. Realistically one could not blow up every lab and farm, no matter how satisfying it might feel. Whatever moral justification there was, some less noble beings might get it in their heads that it was all right for them to blow up some less objectionable, or even good, things. After all, there were blind idiots and hate mongers that despised her and what she stood for. If they got it in their heads they were somehow justified in destroying those things, chaos would ensue.

No, the government could correct any problem in society, so long as the right people were in positions of power. And what better way to ensure it than by being the one who made those decisions. She had a duty to help the less fortunate, and deal with those that degraded the world and society, and she would do what it took to put herself in a position to help them.

But then Man Beast seized control of the pharmaceutical building owned by that vile warmonger, Kodachi Kunou. While a part of Juna reveled in seeing the corrupt profiteer suffer, the ALF's actions made the organization appear very bad in the public's eye. At the same time, it had been an opportunity for Juna to benefit from the situation. She could have insisted on an emergency meeting of the Diet and passed a resolution to discuss some of the legislation she had already proposed which fit with Man Beast's demands. The public would have seen her as personally defusing the situation by opening up a dialogue and convincing the ALF release everyone safely, which was really what everyone wanted. People would have seen her for the sort of person she really was, which only would have boosted her popularity and poll numbers. And that would lead to even bigger and better things.

But then those butchers, the Avengers, bungled everything in the worst way possible. Led by that jackbooted, metal-plated mercenary of Kunou's, the vigilantes had callously murdered Man Beast and his animal-people comrades. Oh, they claimed Man Beast had committed suicide and tried to take everyone with him, but that was far too convenient a story. No, Kunou had managed some sort of cover up, probably planting the explosives herself to make Man Beast appear the villain, when in truth he was a tortured victim of animal cruelty in the so-called name of science. And because Man Beast had taken such extreme actions beforehand, the public believed them instead of properly investigating the situation and learning of the cover-up.

Oh yes, those murdering scum would pay. Perhaps not today, but Juna had some ideas. The recent explosion in the number of super-powered beings had put many people on edge, and the situation wasn't getting any better as increasing numbers of them appeared. Something would have to be done about them, and that just might be the platform Juna needed to springboard her into a position of real power.

But that would require time and maneuvering. In the meantime, hearing the butchers being lauded as 'heroes' for murdering a misunderstood figure like Man Beast was too much for her. It was time to take a stand against these self-righteous, above-the-law lackeys of one of the nation's largest arms dealers. And she knew just the person to help her out, a major contributor to her campaign, as well as an honest man who would never try to ambush her or take something she said out of context.

Juna pressed a button on her phone connecting her to the secretary. "Mitoko, contact Takahashi Kawakami. He's the owner of Channel 6 news. I want to give him an exclusive interview on my reaction to the events at Kobayashi Pharmaceuticals."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

In a nondescript office in a nondescript office building, six figures gathered around a computer monitor that showed the recent interview with the Avengers' newest member. As the interview ended, one of the people spoke in an authoritative tone to the others.

"So, there you have it. The Tigra has returned. Thoughts?"

"I need a smoke."

"It's hard to believe she's back after, what? A thousand years?"

"Anyone got a light?'

"The Phantom Cat texts are quite specific about what the return of the Tigra portends. It's like their version of the Second Coming, only 'salvation' for them spells 'doom' for us."

"I need a lighter."

"So what's she doin' goin' public and joinin' the Avengers?"

"A match?"

"I'm not sure. It doesn't make any sense. By all rights she should have made a beeline for the Balkatar and begun the, err, ritual for 'The Crossing'."

"Anything with an open flame. I just need to light this one cigarette."

"Maybe she doesn't know where the Balkatar is and this is her way of contacting him?"

"You've seen what happens when I go into nicotine withdrawal."

"Possibly. In that case, we're going to have to take her out first."

"Remember when I dismembered that Phantom Cat with my bare hands. And you said it was impossible because Phantom Cats can't be dismembered? That was me going through nicotine withdrawal."

"When youse says 'take out', do youse mean capture using the tag-delete system, like always?"

"Nevermind. I'll just use this flamethrower over here."

"No, I mean kill her. She's too dangerous to be allowed to survive in any form, even if it's on one of our discs."

"Um, Boss?"

"It's Madame President to you. And what do you want?"

"Isn't that the flamethrower with the gas leak in the line?"

"Oh crap! Don't turn on that—"

The explosion was heard five blocks away.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Black Cat moved with his entourage through the now abandoned building that had formerly held Sentaro Electronics, his fur bristling in unease. He didn't like the idea of meeting his rival on what constituted Cougar's home ground, but Black Cat had little choice. Backing out or trying to change the venue would only make him appear weak: something he could not afford at this delicate junction.

To relax himself he took note of the nearly empty offices that held the occasional solitary desk or chair, all that remained of the once vaunted electronics firm. At least Cougar's financial powerbase had been eroded after his capture at Hound's hands. The sly Phantom Cat had seduced a human woman who had inherited her father's electronics business, married her, then killed her, taking ownership of the company for himself and using it as a base of operations. Cougar had been Black Cat's chief rival in trying to seize the rank of Balkatar, male leader of the Phantom Cats on Earth, and had gained much in the eyes of the pride with his aggressive campaigns for killing as many humans as he could. That had interfered with Black Cat's own plans, and he was secretly delighted when Cougar's high profile operations ended up leading Hound to him, and his subsequent capture. But now Cougar was back, demanding a meeting to announce his return, and no doubt assert his own opinion in what should be done with the return of the Tigra.

As much as Black Cat relished the Tigra's return, and what it would mean for their race, her timing could have been better. Another two weeks, and her appearance would have been ideal, but now, ironically, the salvation for the rest of their race might doom his plans for making Earth an acceptable home for them. So much had been geared toward this moment, decades of planning, waiting for technology and the right human to come along who would be malleable to their ideas. Now it threatened to be undone by the second most important figure in their race's hierarchy and an impetuous fool. But not if Black Cat could help it. He would see to it his plans reached fruition, no matter the cost.

Black Cat and his entourage of twenty emerged into what had once been a large testing chamber, stripped of everything and little more than a large empty room. Now it was home to some eighty Phantom Cats. At the center of the group was Cougar, with a female with jet black fur standing next to him.

"So, you've arrived," Cougar said, both tone and posture belligerent in challenge.

"Of course. I am curious as to what you have to say. I haven't seen you since your capture." Black Cat was delighted to see the fur rise ever so slightly at the jab.

Now Cougar dropped any pretenses of false civility. "I have been gone for far too long. There is much we need to discuss. Rumor has it you have some scheme which might end the war against the humans. I wish to know what it is."

There was no reason to keep Cougar out of the loop. Many Phantom Cats knew what was to come. Black Cat had needed the help in executing his master plan. So close now, he could almost taste the victory.

Black Cat told him. In the beginning, Cougar seemed surprised, then delighted with Black Cat, something the Balkatar had never experienced. But then Black Cat told him the ultimate plan with the weapon.

"No!" Cougar shouted, "That's ridiculous. As usual you're showing too much restraint with the humans. We do not need to coexist with them. They must be exterminated!"

"No!" Black Cat boomed back. "We can live with them. Pointless death is useless, and the humans have their uses. They've created this wonderful system of electricity which we use so freely, something we lacked in the early days. And they have other functions as well. Once they are forced to accept us as their superiors, they will behave themselves."

"Trusting fool. Have you forgotten what the return of the Tigra heralds for us? Do you think they will stand idly by as we begin The Crossing of our race? When we flood this world with our own's teeming masses? Far better that the humans are done away with beforehand, so that this world will be virginal for the rest of our pride who lay trapped in our ancient homeland."

"And I say there will be plenty of room here for both the pride and humans. We do not reproduce here like we do there. I myself am one of the forerunners, and have only fathered four offspring in all the centuries we have been here."

"We must slay them all!"

"And as Balkatar I say we will not!"

A calm settled over Cougar then, his eyes narrowed as they focused on Black Cat, though his claws kept extending and retracting. "Then I say you are unfit to be Balkatar. I challenge you to the Passage of the Title."

Black Cat now understood this was the true purpose of the meeting. No, confrontation. Cougar had decided it was time to risk all to lead the pride to the future. In truth, Black Cat had been expecting this.

"Challenge accepted." Rather than removing his trenchcoat and low-brimmed hat which normally hid his features, he simply transformed into his natural felinoid body, expanding to his normal size and shredding his clothing. As he discarded his human form, fur even darker than that of the woman next to Cougar sprouted from his flesh, and only a patch of white under his chin marred the otherwise midnight surface of his body. He was a third again larger than he had been, dwarfing any other Phantom Cat on this side of the dimensional barrier. He was as strong as he appeared, and had deceptive speed as well. But Cougar had seen him fight, and was aware of the physical advantages Black Cat had. However the Balkatar knew Cougar as well and had seen him fight, noting everything he could about his rival. Barring something unforeseen, he would win.

Cougar moved away from his own entourage. None would interfere. It was so alien a thought the Phantom Cats could not conceive of the concept anymore than one born blind from birth could describe the color orange. Loyalty to the pride took precedence over everything, and the challenge for leadership of the advance forces was sacrosanct. The one destined to be Balkatar would win. It was the way of things.

Black Cat wasted no time as he ran straight at Cougar, attacking with everything he had, intent on killing his rival as quickly as possible. There would be no pointless posturing or gloating and no holding back. Death was meant to be quick.

The first slash from Black Cat would have decapitated Cougar had the smaller Phantom Cat not ducked. He did not completely escape, as claws nicked off the tip of an ear. First blood had been drawn; there was no going back. By law the fight would be to the death now, not that either of them wanted to stop. This had been building up for too long, and it would make things simpler for either of them with their chief rival dead.

Cougar was not to be trifled with either. As he ducked the slash at his head, he bent into a tuck and rolled past Black Cat, springing up behind him and slashing at the larger feline's back. The slash wasn't as deep as it could have been, Black Cat sensing the attack and continuing to move forward from his initial thrust. Still, he could feel his fur mat with his own blood. Oh no, this was not going to be like fights with humans (except when they used magic or those damned electromagnetic weapons they had developed). There would be no regeneration of wounds. They would have to heal normally, and Black Cat had a feeling it would take a very long while, regardless of who the winner was.

The two squared off with one another, eyes locking. They circled around one another, low guttural growls escaping their throats, each acknowledging the hatred they held for their centuries long rivalry. Each was a born leader, and they could not coexist as part of the same pride. One had to die.

Black Cat was surprised as Cougar lunged directly at him, charging right into a position which would make him vulnerable to Black Cat's greatest advantage: his strength. But it was a surprise move that made Black Cat hesitate for a split second, and as the larger cat went to slash his rival into pieces, Cougar ducked under the blow and got inside Black Cat's reach. The Balkatar drew back, claws aimed at his throat only scratching it instead of ripping it out. Still more blood flowed from the near fatal wound.

Fighting through the pain, Black Cat lashed out with a fist that connected solidly with the smaller foe. Cougar was sent reeling across the room, and onto his back. He stood up, but began teetering, as though stunned. He staggered, then stopped nearly in the middle of the floor.

Smelling blood, Black Cat pounced, launching his body up in the air. If he hit cleanly, the fight was over.

Cougar suddenly seemed to recover his wits and brought his hands up, deflecting what would have been lethal slashes. But that didn't prevent Black Cat from landing on his foe. The stronger feline with the greater mass and momentum sent Cougar to the ground, pinning him on his back with his own weight.

Having the upper ground, and superior position, Black Cat straddled Cougar and used his longer reach to wrap his hand around Cougar's throat to keep him in place. Raising his upper body high, he kept his throat and face out of Cougar's reach. There was no way the tawny-furred feline would kill Black Cat in one blow now, lacking any vital areas to strike. Oh, three or four slashes to his chest might kill the Balkatar, but Cougar was going to manage one at the most before claws were sent through his brain.

Just as Black Cat raised his hand up for the killing stroke, he saw Cougar's hand disappear through the floor. That was bizarre. While against a human a Phantom Cat could phase away from them, it didn't work when in battle with another Phantom Cat. Their bodies would phase together.

And then the hand came up, a metal gauntlet of circuitry wrapped around it. Cougar aimed it right at Black Cat's head.

Black Cat tried to bring his hand down first, but light traveled faster than flesh as an energy blast shot forth from the gauntlet and struck Black Cat in the face. The Balkatar was aware of destructive electromagnetic forces tearing through his brain an instant before his head was incinerated in a small but spectacular explosion.

Cougar hurled the body of his now deceased foe from him and rose up. He brandished the hand encased in the gauntlet before him, showing it off to all in the room. Satisfied at the show of force, he stared at the body of his dead rival, the neck smoldering and filling the air with the scent of ozone and burning fur and flesh. He began speaking to it. "I call this a Null Band. I designed them myself before my imprisonment. Designing them actually bankrupted the company, but it was worth it. You see, not only are they insidiously powerful, but they kill Phantom Cats as well as humans. As you can attest to."

The other Phantom Cats looked at each other in shock, and murmurs began to circulate about the weapon used by Cougar.

Raven spoke. "There is nothing in the rules that says one must fight without weapons in the challenge. It was Cougar's own brains and ingenuity which won the day."

As if in answer to the proclamation, Cougar's body suddenly began to swell, becoming larger and more muscular, until it was the size of Black Cat's deceased form. Cougar stared at his body, a satisfied, fanged grin etched on his features.

Raven walked up to him and decreed "Now all behold the new Balkatar and savior of our race!"

As one the Phantom Cats raised their heads up and gave a harmonious howl that made the walls vibrate.

The newly crowned Balkatar smiled. "And my first decision is to modify Black Cat's plans slightly so that the outcome is more… definitive, than what he desired."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Have a nice trip, you two," the stewardess said as the last two passengers prepared to disembark from the plane.

"Thanks," the blonde girl, who appeared to be no more than thirteen or so, cheerfully said. She was dressed in an outfit that was closer to what an eight-year old might wear. For a moment, the stewardess considered warning the girl to watch out for some men: she was lolicon bait if ever there was, but chose not to.

Part of that reason was her traveling companion. Only about nineteen or so, she was dark-skinned, possibly Indian, and wore a leather trenchcoat and wraparound shades which hid her eyes. Right after they had lifted off, the stewardess had seen the young woman remove the shades to clean them. Their eyes met for the briefest of moments, and the stewardess felt like she was swimming alone in the middle of an ocean while a shark watched her hungrily. Worse, there was something almost hypnotic about those eyes that made her want to swim right into the shark's open mouth. She felt like she would have stared at them for the entire trip had if an obnoxious passenger hadn't tugged her sleeve, demanding something to drink. Once eye contact was broken the stewardess had avoided the girl until the end. But she could feel the girl's gaze watching her behind those sunglasses. It made her tremble. It consumed her thoughts. And no matter how she tried, she couldn't stop looking at her in return.

But finally the flight was over and the stewardess could relax. At least she hoped she could, though she had a feeling those eyes would remain with her for a very, very long time.

As the young woman in question passed by, she whispered just low enough for the stewardess to hear, "I bet you'd taste delicious."

The stewardess fell to her knees, both terrified and more turned on than she could ever remember.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

"You're so bad," Minnie-May Hopkins cooed to her partner as the pair headed through the terminal and directly toward the baggage claim area.

"It's been a while since I've had any fun," Rally Vincent said to her diminutive partner. "I haven't had sex, or killed anyone, in days."

"And I thought I was the horny one," Minnie-May chided.

"You are." Rally's smile was wicked. "I would have liked to do both to her."

"She was a cutie," Minnie-May remarked casually at the idea of Rally acting like a female praying mantis.

Rally gave a smile that chilled everyone that saw it. She remembered a time when either thought would have been alien to her. Back then, she had been a virgin that killed strictly out of self-defense, and even then she went to great lengths to avoid it. Then Goldie captured her and changed everything. Being subjected to the hypnotic designer drug, Kerasine, the Lesbian Mafia queen warped Rally into becoming her personal hitwoman and sex slave, using her often in both roles. The dyke bitch had an insatiable appetite, and had done things to Rally that she hadn't conceived of. Especially after a hit. The heights of unwilling ecstasy Goldie took her to would have blown her mind, and the Kerasine only heightened it.

Then the bad batch of Kerasine hit, and suddenly the world became a different place. It became impossible to conceive of killing without sex, and living without the ecstasy was pure torture. The two became synonymous in Rally's mind.

Not that that had saved Goldie. There had always been a part of Rally that despised the woman like nothing she had ever experienced before; a hatred that went beyond nearly anything human, and certainly beyond sanity. What was done to her. What she did to May. Free of their enslavement, Rally and May tore through Goldie's mob, killing everyone in 'the family,' from the lowest street dealer to Goldie herself. Oh, Rally had enjoyed killing her more than anything else. And she had gotten off harder and more often than ever while the woman died piece by piece. Sometimes she thought it hadn't been real at all, it was so impossibly wonderful. She hadn't been able to recapture that moment yet, no matter who she had killed, and there were many. She wanted to find that special someone, like Goldie. Someone to hate and love, to show her devotion, her heart, by killing them slowly, so she could capture that elusive ecstasy again.

Minnie-May was different, though her end goal was the same. When Goldie had captured her, it was only because of her association with her true goal: Rally. For all of Goldie's obsession with younger girls, she had no interest in May, once mentioning to Rally that May's extensive experience from having been a professional hooker made her 'not fun'. Not one to waste resources, Goldie had May given to a scientist named Jonas Harrow for experimental treatments on creating superhumans. Harrow's treatment worked wonders, successfully transforming May into a living powder keg that could detonate herself at will. Goldie dubbed her 'Nitro' and had used her in a number of jobs. At least until she partook of the same bad batch of drugs that freed her and Rally from Goldie's control.

But that was the past. Now it was time for business. The Kingpin had informed the Gunsmith Cats that someone wanted to contract them for a major hit, one that would pay ten times their normal fee. There was no way they would turn that down, and if the information came from the Kingpin, it had to be legit. After all, he was the one that brokered the peace between the GSC and the remaining Chicago mobs, convincing Rally and May that they didn't need to kill everything associated with Goldie, and that becoming freelance hitwomen would provide them with their need to kill and, in May's case, blow the shit out of everything.

They recovered their bags and placed the call to the cell phone number they had been given. Upon walking outside of the main terminal, a limousine pulled up to the curb. A chauffer exited the vehicle and silently opened the door for them. 

They entered and beheld the most luxurious interior of a car they had ever seen. Sitting on the far side of the vehicle was a painfully handsome man, European in ancestry. He was like a proverbial Greek god. Across his legs was a closed laptop.

"Please, be seated," he said in flawless English.

The girls accepted. The door closed behind them, and soon they were driving away from the airport.

"So who do you want us to take care of?" Rally asked.

The man opened the laptop and punched a key. He turned the computer around so the girls could see the screen. "These people." The computer began flashing pictures of the Avengers one at a time.

May whistled, while Rally removed her glasses. They looked over the information displayed as it scrolled past.

Rally eventually said, "While we have killed SPB's, including Jewel, Shooting Star, and Crime Buster, this is too much for us. That's not to say we can't kill any of them. We can do them all except Iron Rose, Thor, and the Hulk."

The man said, "Actually, we have several advanced prototype weapons which we believe can eliminate both Iron Rose and the Hulk. As to Thor, well, for the money we're offering, we think you can improvise something. After all, you are reputed to be the top hit team in the United States."

Rally considered that. "Let me see the specs on the weapons, and I'll let you know. And if we do take a contract on those three, we want double for those kills."

"Done," the man said.

"That was fast," May said testily to Rally, "I always tell you to demand three times the cash for difficult hits first, then settle for two if they won't go."

Rally ignored May and smiled as dreams filled with blood-soaked Avengers flowed through her mind. SPBs were fun to kill. They could last a long time and were a lot more dangerous than the standard hit. Maybe she could find that elusive something in one of the more durable heroes. And even if she didn't, it would be fun trying.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Ukyou Kuonji stood at her grill, making okonomiyaki as fast as she could. Business was booming of late, with sizeable crowds she had problems dealing with. Word had gotten around of how delicious her cooking was and despite the odd hours she kept, people were eager to sample her wares.

Admittedly, she was a bit tired of late. Leading a triple life did that to a girl. Student, chef, and superheroine, any one was difficult, and combined it was hellacious. Her grades were mediocre due to a lack of studying, she had to keep the Ucchan's closed more often than she liked, and she had cut out her solo activity as Hawkeye altogether.

Ukyou didn't even always attend Avengers matters because of her other lives. Like the last case. The Avengers alert had come in during the middle of her dinner rush. Abandoning her customers during that time of the day, and she might as well shut down for good. No Kuonji had ever lost a restaurant, and she didn't intend to be the first. Luckily the alert indicated it was a low level threat, and others had said they would take care of the matter, freeing Ukyou up. But still, the assessment had only been a guess, and if any of her comrades had been injured or died, she would never have forgiven herself.

Ukyou could have shut down the restaurant, she made enough money on her Avengers salary to live on it, but cooking okonomiyaki was a passion of hers, even if the martial arts aspect of it wasn't. Opening a restaurant had been her dream, and there was no way she was abandoning it now. She'd just have to continue her juggling act as best as she could and hope for the best.

At least she had taken care of things with Ranma. That was a bit of progress. They had settled down to a relaxed friendship with no hard feelings over the past. Well, not many, since it was his jackass father who had screwed everything up. But the fat man had agreed to keep quiet regarding her secret identity, so he wasn't totally irredeemable. Just mostly.

And she was starting to feel a little comfortable wearing women's clothing. She still didn't enjoy wearing skirts, it felt too much like being naked with air being able to blow up her outfit. And panties were a different feeling from briefs. Bras were a hassle and it felt weird having her boobs stick out, since she was used to strapping the things down tight across her chest, like when she was Hawkeye. But overall the feminine nature of her 'cute girl' wardrobe was starting to grow on her.

A pity her love life was non-existent. She really needed to figure out a way for Captain Japan to notice her. As a girl, of course, not as a guy. Being perceived as the incorrect gender was a major stumbling block in any relationship. She was a piece of stone, as far as the hunky Captain was concerned. At least none of the girls in the group had come on to her, excepting that one kiss from Thor during the Mandarin incident, which thankfully had not been repeated. Ukyou didn't want to think of what would happen if Bucky hit on her. Of course, she didn't like whatever close association the far too bouncy redhead had with the Captain. Wasp seemed to be partners with Giant Man, but she was becoming increasingly flirtatious. That was a potential problem. A pity she wasn't locked down at Wasp size. Iron Rose was encased in a virtual chastity belt of armor. Thor was, well Thor.

But when it came to Tigra, the furry slut was the worst. She was constantly hanging all over Captain Japan, the hussy. And it was damn obvious she wasn't simply flirting, like Wasp did. And no matter how Ukyou, Iron Rose, or Thor tried to suggest more healthy recreational activities, like playing with matches while standing in pools of gasoline, she just blew them off with a verbal barb. Ukyou was almost tempted to try and seduce the furball just to keep her from hanging all over the hero.

Revolting as the idea was, Ukyou thought she could manage it. During her cross-dressing days at an all guy's school, she had plenty of girls come on to her. She had even dated a few to keep anyone from guessing her true gender. The dates were all strictly platonic, of course, but that just seemed to make the girls bolder. There were even a couple of cat fights over her. What would one give a were-woman as a courtship gift, though? Cat litter?

As Ukyou pondered the matter and cooked, the door to her restaurant suddenly flew open. It was followed by what was possibly the most bizarre thing she had ever witnessed: a man dressed in a skin-tight black body suit with a helmet that appeared identical to an eight-ball. He had a pool cue in one hand, and flew in on a hovering pool rack.

"Now I've seen everything I've never wanted to see," Ukyou muttered to herself.

The man shouted, "This is a stick up, Ladies and Gentlemen, courtesy of the newest super-villain in town: 8-Ball."

One of the customers said, "A stick up with a pool stick? That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard."

8-Ball flew up to the man and stepped out of the rack and on to the floor. He then drew his pool cue back like he was taking a shot, then thrust it forward. The tip hit the man and he suddenly went flying through the air, his flight path stopped by the wall he struck with enough velocity to knock himself out.

8-Ball held his pool cue out, waving it at the customers. "As you can see, this is my version of a 'Boomstick'. So it behooves you to give me all your valuables, or else I shall be forced to start making trick shots with your bodies." He retrieved a large canvas sack from the hovering rack and threw it in the middle of the floor.

Ukyou was in a bind. Only suicidal people ever tried to rob a Kuonji, given their background in Okonomiyaki Martial Arts. Except she sucked at that. She did make up for it by being the best archer in the world (regardless of what that obnoxious Jessie Gurtland contended). There was a collapsible bow and a couple of trick arrows under the grill. She could draw and incapacitate the man in the blink of an eye, but that would surely blow her secret identity, especially since she went to such great lengths to distance herself from archery. Was it worth the price to stop some lame ninny that was straight out of Daredevil's Rogue's Gallery? Could she let her store be robbed when her pride as a Kuonji was on the line?

She was just starting to finger her bow when a youth about her age, with a backpack slung over his back and a yellow and black striped bandanna across his brow, entered the restaurant. He said, "Excuse me, can I get something to eat?"

8-Ball turned to him, wielding his cue. "Better cough up some cash, pal, or you're going to end up a bank shot."

Ukyou's hand grasped around the bow. No way was she letting another customer get the crap kicked out of them. Although she hesitated. There was something familiar about the guy. She couldn't put her finger on it.

While Ukyou searched her memory, the boy drew a bamboo umbrella that had been slung across the top of the pack, out.

While 8-Ball's expression was unreadable, since his head resembled a giant 8-Ball, an object not known from promoting expressions, his body posture spoke of irritation. "So, we have a would-be hero. I shall christen you 'The Bloody Smear'!" He took a shot with his cue.

The youth ducked to the left and brought the umbrella down hard on the cue. The impact from the object shattered the villain's shaft. Wires dangled and sparks shot out from destroyed technological device.

8-Ball trembled as he beheld the remnant of his weapon. "You can't do this to me! Normal people can't defeat super-villains! It's just not done!"

The youth looked the villain over as he raised the umbrella over his head. "You should be grateful. Given that costume you're wearing, I'm saving you from a life more humiliating than mine." He brought the umbrella down on 8-Ball's helmet, shattering it and knocking the villain insensate.

After making sure the man was unconscious, the youth went up to the counter where Ukyou, finished calling the police, smiled. "Sit down and have an okonomiyaki on the house."

"Thanks." The youth did so, scarfing down the food before it had a chance to cool off. Ukyou was impressed that he could eat something that should have roasted the inside of his mouth without a hint of discomfort.

"So, what's your name?" Ukyou asked as she prepared another one.

"Ryouga Hibiki."

"Thanks for helping me out." Ukyou noticed the other customers were now ignoring the unconscious villain, apparently regarding him as being too silly to be afraid of. Or maybe being attacked by a giant talking 8-Ball was so bizarre, it just didn't seem real enough to worry about.

"Can you answer me a question?" Ryouga asked.

"Sure."

"You wouldn't happen to know a Ranma Saotome, would you?"

Ukyou was so startled she nearly burned her okonomiyaki. "Yes, as a matter of fact, I do. What do you want him for?"

Ryouga smiled. "There's an old debt I have to settle with him."

Ukyou could sympathize. She was also sensitive enough not to delve deeper. She owed Ryouga for helping her out of a tight jam "I know that feeling. He's a friend of mine. Want me to arrange a meeting for you two so you guys can work things out?"

"Oh yes. That would be just perfect." Ukyou didn't see Ryouga's hand curl into a fist under the counter, nor the light green tint his skin took as he thought about his old foe.

Xxxxxxxx

End Chapter 


	31. Side Story 4 The Tragic Death

Avenging Side Story 4 The Tragic Death of Haruhi Suzumiya 

Any and all C+C appreciated. You can contact me the I don't own any of the Marvel characters or other characters from the numerous animes which are within.

[ forward These events take place during Act III, after Chapter 2. Yet before it as well.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

[16 Years Ago

Kozue Morishima made certain to hold the newborn properly. Fresh out of nursing school, she had only been working in Yokohama General for a week, and still tended to think about every little detail since nothing was automatic to her yet. Still, she was impatient since she should have been finished with her shift fifteen minutes ago. She was going to be late for her a date with the sexy young doctor that had asked her out last night. One of Kozue's co-workers claimed he was a playboy that hit on all the nurses, but Kozue was certain she could win him over and land him. Then it would be retirement, marriage, and babies of her own in the future. Hell, it was one reason she wanted to be a nurse in the first place. Hospitals were the best ponds to fish in to land a doctor, and sexy nurses' outfits made great bait.

Visions of wedding ceremonies danced in Kozue's head when an older woman's deep voice said, "Oh, let me see that cutie."

Kozue turned to see another nurse, at least in her late forties, cooing at the baby. She didn't recognize her, but then she was still new and didn't really know many of her coworkers. The nametag said, 'Nurse Akagi'.

Kozue offered the baby to her. It was true. The girl was adorable. Seeing so many infants made Kozue want one of her own more than ever.

"What's her name?" Akagi asked.

"Haruhi Suzumiya."

The nurse's smile broadened. "May I hold her?"

Technically Kozue probably shouldn't, but then pissing off an obvious superior by citing rules would just make the job bad for her. The woman was probably a friend of the head of the nursing department, of maybe even the chief executive of the hospital. She held out the baby to Akagi.

The older woman accepted the child and looked down at her cherubic face. "Have you ever looked at a baby and just known they're someone special?"

Kozue couldn't say she had. Then again, she hadn't had any of her own, or been a nurse very long.

"You look like you're in a hurry," Akagi said.

"Ah, well," Kozue didn't know whether to be honest or not. Would it seem unprofessional?

"Why don't I take her to the ward and you get on with what you wanted to?" Akagi suggested.

Kozue knew she shouldn't, but it was all but an order from a superior. Sort of. She bowed in gratitude and left. She'd have just enough time to put on the proper make up before the date, rather than rushing through it.

Once Kozue was out of sight, the Nurse Akagi continued walking with the child in her arms until she entered the newborn's ward. She lay the child in her assigned crib and cradled the infant's cherubic face.

In a soft voice, she said, "Yes, Haruhi, you'll be special. Very special. Sixteen years from now, while you're on a trip to England with your parents, you'll be present when a momentous event occurs. A madman from an alternate universe, Sir James Jaspers, and his reality altering 'Jasper's Warp' will strike London when you're visiting. Luckily, he'll be repulsed by Captain Britain and Excaliber before he has a chance to destroy our universe like he has so many others.

"Unfortunately, your close proximity to the Jasper's Warp will soon trigger your own reality warping abilities. It'll take several months, but eventually they'll be tapped on a subconsciously level, and you have such an active imagination. Normality has no place in your life. Time-traveling waitresses, alien magicians, your own version of Jasper's 'Crazy Gang', baseball games with the fate of the world in the balance, and some many bizarre things, all your doing as you change and shift the world to suit your every whim. Your constant tampering with reality threatened to unravel the very fabric of our universe. In my past, you were only stopped a hairsbreadth away from destroying all by a variety of powerful beings.

"In fact, looking at a number of alternate timelines, you did succeed in destroying our universe. Far too often. And there's no guarantee that you wouldn't succeed this time, with my┘ alterations having changed things. Necessary ones, but I must be careful lest I prevent my becoming what I am today. I can only affect things at certain junctures, not changing the key elements in my future creation, all the while preventing the Tragedy from occurring.

"But, ironically, despite your encompassing the entire world in your reality warping powers, once you're defeated, everything snapped back to normal, with only a handful at the center of your defeat remember only the faintest of details of your tampering. Meaning your death today will change nothing of consequence in the future."

Done talking, Akagi removed her hand from Haruhi's mouth and nose. While she had struggled at first, she had stopped moving several minutes ago. A quick check showed no pulse in the tiny infant. The work was done. Reality saved from potential destruction at the hands of the small child, Haruhi's passing attributed as another crib death.

'Nurse Akagi' left the room and hospital. The moment she was outside, 'she' dropped her cloaking device, revealing a decidedly male figure in purple and green armor, a blue face mask hiding his features.

Only one elderly patient saw him for a brief second before Kang disappeared from sight, or more appropriately from time.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Kang sat in the stone throne in the Citadel of Time. Observing. Planning. One possible obstruction had been removed. But it was a minor one. He needed to destroy the Avengers. His Fourth Sleeper and Hulkbusters projects might have failed, but he was confident in the next one, already moving pieces into position. Surely his Champions could defeat their counterparts. Just another few months, and he'd be ready to propose the idea to the president. And then┘

And then the Avengers would be dead, and all would be well.

Xxxxxx

[End fic

This one didn't really fit in the proper Avengers story, so it became a side story. It also shows Kang's still active and manipulating events. It also uses the age old moral question of 'if you could go back in time and kill Hitler as an infant, before he committed the atrocities he did, would you do it?'


	32. Act III Animal Farm chap 7

Avenging

Act III, The Animal Farm

Chapter 7

Any and all C+C appreciated. You can contact me the previous chapters and my other works are stored at:

Larry F's new address at:

newer works at Mediaminer

disclaimer: I don't own any of the Marvel characters or other characters from the numerous animes which are within.

Here's a great reference guide for many character and objects in the Marvel Universe.

[ chapter: The Gunsmith Cats hit Japan and accepted a contract on the Avengers. Cougar killed Black Cat and is now in charge of the Phantom Cats. Thor tried to shower with Bucky, and Ryouga helped Ukyou against the villainous '8-Ball', whereupon she promised to help Ryouga track down Ranma.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The journey of a thousand miles, the journey that began with a single step, had at last drawn to its conclusion.

Ryouga looked across the lot toward his longtime foe. The resemblance between this and the battleground Ryouga had challenged his arch-nemesis to, the one he had cowardly ran way from, was strong. How appropriate that, after years of wandering, Ranma should be run to ground in a place that was so similar to where the chase had begun. It was symmetrical, like a pair of book ends. And not the cute kind that were designed to look like animals, but the plain, metal type that had that bizarre art deco look.

Ranma had brought friends, the coward. Ryouga recognized Ranma's father. There was another older man, who was new, as were the three girls with him. The girls were roughly Ryouga's age, except maybe the tallest one, who might have been a handful of years older.

But Ryouga had brought an ally. At least he thought of her as one. Ukyou Kuonji, that nice girl who had fed him after he dispatched that ridiculous Goofball. Or was it 8-Ball? It didn't matter. Anyone that tried robbing people with a pool cue deserved to be beaten up. Upon learning of the grudge Ryouga had against Ranma, Ukyou had been kind enough to arrange a confrontation between the two of them. She was so nice. It was impossible to see how Ranma could have dumped Ukyou as a fiancée. Okay, according to Ukyou it was Genma who had screwed up her life, but Ryouga bet Ranma had something to do with it. He was that kind of guy.

Finally, it began as Ranma started to walk toward him. Refusing to be look like a coward, Ryouga walked forward as well, intent on meeting Ranma right at the halfway point. And when they met, everything would be settled once and for all, with Ranma lying beaten into a bloody pulp and Ryouga's life would become happiness and sunshine.

The two stopped, not more than an arm's length away from each other. Unable to hold back any longer, Ryouga snarled, "So, Ranma, after countless years and countless miles, we meet again for the first time at last. Every day I've fantasized about this moment and what I'm going to do to you. There's no escape for you this time, Ranma. Because of you, I've seen hell--."

"Yeah, sorry about that. It's completely my fault," Ranma said.

Ryouga stopped in mid-rant. "What?"

Ranma continued, looking as close to contrition as he could manage. "No, really, it was totally my fault. I was dumb in dismissing your story about helping some invisible chick out of hand. I should never have blindly believed a bunch of strange kids, especially since I know ya. I should have investigated to find out if they were telling the truth, but instead I beat you up and bad mouthed you and didn't wait three days to have our fight, when it turns out you're the real victim here. Anyway, sorry for making your life hell."

Ryouga was left adrift like an unanchored ship in the middle of the typhoon. Ranma was supposed to deny everything and then get beaten up in the ensuing fight, not immediately take responsibility for his actions, explain correctly why he had been wrong, and then apologize for his wrongdoing.

A friendly hand slapped Ryouga on the shoulder. Ukyou said, "There you go, Ryouga, total victory for you."

"It is?" But no one had been beaten up. What sort of victory didn't have one's foe smashed for being the bad guy?

The tallest of the girls that had arrived with Ranma approached. "Of course it is. Anyone can punch out someone else, but it takes a real man to accept a heartfelt apology."

"It does?" Ryouga wanted to argue the point, but he couldn't seem to bring himself to disagree with girls. Especially nice ones, like these two.

Now the girl with the wooden cane and limp had made her way to their side. "Yep. I've never heard Ranma apologize about anything until now."

"What did I have to apologize for until now?" Ranma said a touch defensively.

Akane continued, unfazed. "Congratulations on getting him to do something no one else has."

Kasumi continued before Ryouga could come up with a counter-argument. "Only a ruthless thug would beat up a man after he apologized for his wrongdoing. You're not a ruthless thug, are you?"

"No! No. Definitely not." And with that it was sealed, Ryouga realized. While a part of him might not have entirely agreed with the sentiment, there was no way he could beat up Ranma now, or even reject his apology, and not look like the bad guy in front of these girls. He would become that which he had been accused of, that which he had protested from the day it had happened. No way was he proving Ranma's claim valid, if even if it was after the fact.

Ukyou said, "I've only known Ryouga for a little while, but I can tell he's on okay guy."

Another, unexpected quarter spoke up on his behalf "Darn right," Ranma said. "We were the best buds in junior high. He was the only guy tough enough to give me a run for the money."

Ryouga was just plain confused when Kasumi prodded him once again. "So, Ryouga, you accept Ranma's apology, right?"

Ryouga was so deep in it now, even he would think he was he bad guy if he refused. "Yeah, sure."

"All right," Ranma affectionately slapped Ryouga on the back, like he used to do in the old days when the two had been friends. "Hey, you been keeping in shape?"

"Of course," Ryouga said as Ranma draped a brotherly arm around his shoulders and the two began to walk off on their own.

"Good. I still don't have any normal sparring partners to help keep me in shape, and like I said, you were tough enough to always make me have to work for it. Feel like reliving some of the good old times?"

The good old times weren't all that bad, hence the 'good' in it. Actually, hanging out with Ranma had been fun. "Uh yeah, sure." Ryouga allowed himself to be led a few steps before saying, "You know, this really feels anti-climatic."

Ranma said, "What, the whole revenge thing not working out the way you thought? Don't worry about it. I'm sure at some point we'll have another misunderstanding and end up in a fight. That happens a lot in my line of work."

"Line of work?"

"Err, in my life, I mean." Ranma pointed at Ryouga's forehead. "What's with the bandanna, anyway? You a Hulk fanboy, or something?"

"Ah, sort of," Ryouga said warily. "Why don't we spar?" No way was he telling Ranma about his Hulk situation. Though Ryouga was pretty okay with it, it might scare Ranma off since Ryouga could turn big, green, and mean, and turn Ranma into a bloody splatter with the flick of a finger. So maybe it was for the best that things turned out this way. Revenge on Ranma had not included killing him. Just beating him up badly. If he had lost his temper to the degree of Hulking out, well, it wouldn't have been too pretty,

Besides, Ryouga's quest for revenge wasn't entirely over. He still had to get even with that little redhead that had kicked him into the stupid cursed spring.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"That worked out well." Kasumi was relieved. If Ryouga had changed into the Hulk, Giant Man, who 'just happened to be in the neighborhood', and was shrunken down to ant size nearby, was ready to use some of his shrink gas on Ranma to keep him from getting killed. But it hadn't come to that. Everything had been resolved peacefully and the two old friends were getting along.

"That was wonderful, daughter," Soun said, suddenly appearing and startling Kasumi.

Genma was beside her as well. "Indeed. It's so nice to see you're looking out for Ranma's welfare, just like a potential fiancée should."

Kasumi grimaced. Not wanting someone dead was not the same thing as wanting to marry them. Besides, she was a genuine kick butt superhero, and had had no intention of settling down with anyone in the near future. She had to think of something fast to deflect their attention, or at least belittle her accomplishment.

"I only did the same thing any of us would have done." She indicated her two sisters.

Akane sensed the father's attention redirected her way, and just when things were going good in them locking on Kasumi for becoming the official fiancée. She would have liked to deny Kasumi's claim, but that wasn't the sort of thing any normal person could do, given the way Kasumi had stated it. "Uh, yeah. I wouldn't want to see either of them get beat up."

Nabiki said, "I wouldn't have stopped them."

Everyone stared at her.

"Well, not right away," Nabiki clarified.

That relaxed them somewhat.

Nabiki further clarified. "I would have waited until one of them really had the crap kicked out of them, then I would have offered my services for a fee. I could command a higher price further in the fight, since, when someone is actually losing, since they're more desperate for victory and are willing to pay more than at the outset of a fight."

Everyone was momentarily struck speechless. Then Kasumi said to her father, "What amazing financial sense Nabiki has. She's definitely able to run a household's income with that kind of efficiency."

"Uh, well, I supposed that is true," Soun said reluctantly.

"Let's go eat," Kasumi said, satisfied she had thrown off the fathers' sights which had been in danger of settling on her.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It was hours later that Ryouga wandered around the streets of Nerima, lost in thought. He had sparred with Ranma, and, almost against his will, it had become fun. Indeed, just like 'the good old times', as Ranma had proclaimed them. Pretty much all of the pent up anger Ryouga had directed at Ranma was gone, which was what was currently making him angry. Really, why had he bothered chasing after Ranma for years on end, only to let himself lose by winning? What was the point in it all?

"Ahhhh! Stupid, stupid, stupid! I can't even get revenge right!" Ryouga began to mindlessly bash his head against a wall in frustration.

Unlike most people, Ryouga had success on the tenth head butt of breaking said wall. That his body had been bombarded with high levels of gamma radiation helped the cause, as the physical violence, in combination with the pent up frustration, had turned him into the Hulk.

The Hulk looked at the new pile of gravel his forehead had made. "Why did Hulk do that?" Maybe his head had been itchy.

It was at that point that a beeping began emanating from somewhere around the Hulk. It was a low, steady beep. The noise was just a touch irritating. He searched the area trying to locate the source. He looked in dumpsters, under dumpsters, under a section of the street (by lifting it up), but couldn't seem to find it. After a couple of minutes, the Hulk grew irritated at the noise. He leapt in a direction to get away from the beeping. Instead it stayed with him. Actually, the beeps grew closer together.

"Where is noise coming from?" The Hulk shouted. He leapt again. And again. The beeps grew closer together, then with the next beep they grew farther apart.

"Ahhhh! Hulk wants to get away from stupid noise!" he bellowed at the top of his lungs. Maybe it was time to smash something. Smashing usually made things better. If it didn't, he wouldn't find himself doing it so often.

It was at that moment that Thor dropped down from the heavens and landed next to him. The mere presence of the goddess managed to calm even the emerald behemoth.

"Hammer Girl!" Hulk said, delighted.

"What seems to trouble thee?" Thor asked.

That put his mind back on its previous track. "There is a beeping noise that is following Hulk, but Hulk cannot find it. It's like an itch Hulk can't scratch. Except it's not itchy; just annoying. Hulk thinks if he scratches it hard enough, it will go away."

Thor walked up until she was right next to the Hulk. That made him grin stupidly. Thor reached up and rested her hand on his head. He would have wagged a tail if he had one, or was Tigra.

Thor's hand felt the bandanna, then settled on one spot and pushed it against his head. The beeps stopped, "Tis the emergency signal sown in thy headband, the same one I received. We put on a location beacon so thou couldst' find Avengers Mansion by following the beeps. The closer the beeps are together, the closer thou are to yon mansion. So concentrate on making the beeps louder when they do sound."

"If Hulk does that, will Hulk get to meet Hammer Girl?"

"Err, aye," Thor said with a touch of unease.

"Good." That one was going into the long term memory. The more beeps one heard, the closer to Hammer Girl Hulk was.

The goofy grin on the Hulk's face, made Thor uneasy, but she had no time to worry about it. "I shall lead thee to the mansion." She swung her hammer and threw it in the direction of the mansion. Holding on to the thong, she went with it.

The Hulk leapt after her.

Minutes later, the pair arrived, Sasuke leading them to the hanger bay where the quinjet was about to take off. Thor noted they were the last to arrive. She was delighted to see it was Captain Japan, rather than Bucky, in attendance.

"What be the emergency?" she asked.

Hawkeye was the one to explain. "We got an emergency call. Apparently there's an incredibly powerful super-villain called the 'Basher', threatening some little girl at an oil storage facility in Tokyo. We're on our way to save her."

The Hulk scowled. "'Basher'? That sounds like 'Smasher', which sounds like 'Smash'. Hulk smashes. Hulk does not like it when people try to rip him off. Hulk will show Basher by smashing him."

"I think a lawsuit might be healthier," Giant Man suggested.

Iron Rose said, "Spoken like someone who has never been sued. Believe me, going five rounds with the Hulk is preferable to getting billed for five rounds with a lawyer."

As they spoke, the doors to the hanger opened, revealing the night sky. Thor announced, "Since it be not far, I shall fly alongside yon conveyance."

"I shall as well," Iron Rose said. "Just in case there's no time to land before rescuing the girl."

The Hulk was torn. On one side, he wanted to near Thor. On the other, he knew he couldn't leap as fast as she could fly. Reluctantly he got on the quinjet and buckled himself into his seat. After all, it was dangerous to travel without a seatbelt.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Errr, Miss, how long are we going to stay here?"

Minnie-May Hopkins, aka Nitro, the Exploding Girl, looked at the man next to her: the Basher. He was dressed in a normal looking suit with a black mask over his face. Not much of an outfit, though she supposed she shouldn't criticize. She was wearing a cute little dress that made her look about ten instead of her seventeen years. As far as she was concerned, it was just what the occasion called for as the pair of them stood on a platform right next to a giant three story oil tank next to the docks where the oil tankers frequently docked.

Minnie-May looked up to the sky. She had already received a radio report that the Avengers' quinjet was on its way to 'rescue her' from the clutches of the 'horrible supervillain' standing next to her. "Soon. You're getting paid good money for this, you know."

The Basher shrugged. "I know. Thanks to a phone call to the police, and with you as my pretend hostage, the police will be here. Once they arrive, I will kill them all. And get paid for it too, which is great, since my job at the diner doesn't pay squat."

"What exactly is your super power anyway?"

The Basher pulled several fist-sized balls from the pocket of his pants. "With these!"

Minnie-May was a bit disappointed at the revelation. She thought he was someone who had something to brag about. "Are they filled with explosives?" Minnie-May liked explosives. It might give them something talk about while they waited.

"Are you kidding? If I ever dropped one, it might blow up on me. These are just hard balls. But I have a mean throwing arm. Watch." He drew back and threw one of the balls a hundred feet away. It clunked against a dumpster and dropped to the ground.

The Basher laughed maniacally. "Oh yes! Soon the police will learn what it means to fear my power!"

Minnie-May released a tired sigh. That really was about as silly as you could get. Well, no, there was the 'Ringer.' Although maybe wrapping people up in metal rings was better than hitting them with hard balls. It was something of a toss up.

Oh well, what was about to happen would be a service to the super-villain community. She continued looking bored until a low flying vehicle with an unusual design came into sight. "Here they come. Menace me."

Minnie-May cowered while The Basher raised his arms up in a 'Frankenstein Monster' manner.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

In the approaching quinjet, everyone spotted the figures next to the oil storage tank.

Giant Man was the first on the communicator. "Listen up. It looks like we got here just in time. We should—"

"Thor shall save the day!" she announced over the communicator as she flew right for the pair.

"We should really have a plan," Giant Man pointed out, not that that slowed the Goddess of Thunder down. He sighed. "We'll just wing it, like we always do." He took the quinjet into a landing pattern.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

Unable to see any police, the Basher finally looked up and saw the approaching Goddess heading right toward him. He looked in terror at Minnie-May. "Oh my god! That's the Avengers! I can't fight them!"

"Don't worry. You won't have to fight them," Minnie-May informed him. "Thor was the only one Bullseye was worried about. I was sort of hoping to lure them all in, but as long as she's first, she's all that matters. Rally can handle the rest with the special items she got from our employers."

"What can you do to someone that powerful?!" the Basher screamed.

"This."

And Minnie-May Hopkins, living up to her nom-de-guerre, exploded.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

To Iron Rose, everything happened at once. The little girl exploded, taking not just the man menacing her, but the oil tank directly behind her, easily shattering the container and igniting the oil within. That explosion lit up the night sky for miles around, the fireball engulfing Thor, who had just come in for a landing next to the villain.

Even as the shockwave from the titanic explosion washed over the airborne heroine, her sensors picked up an incoming missile launched from a nearby building. She quickly calculated the trajectory, realizing it had not been aimed at her, but rather the quinjet.

Just as she brought her repulsors up in an effort to blast the missile from the sky, something small impacted with the back of her head. Instantly her armor seized up, everything shutting down. Her eyes widened behind the slits of her faceplate as she plunged headfirst to the ground. She tried shifting in some way to keep from plunging like a rock, tried rebooting her system, but nothing worked. The only thing still running was her pacemaker, which was on its own system

Iron Rose hit the ground headfirst, rendered unconscious in an instant.

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

The missile struck toward the front of the quinjet just as it went into hover mode. Its titanium alloy enabled it to keep from cracking in two, but there was a massive hole blown in the side, frying the entire electronics system. The engines cut out and, much like Iron Rose, the ship went straight down into the ground, striking hard. While the craft had been going in for a landing, it has still been high enough that the impact cause significant damage to both aircraft and passengers.

Groans arose from inside the cabin. Including from the Hulk, who had started to doze off right before the explosion and crash.

The emerald goliath looked around wildly at the carnage surrounding him, snapping his seat belt as though it were string. "What happened? Did robots attack Hulk? Robots always attack Hulk."

Captain Japan unstrapped himself from his seat, sore but otherwise unharmed. "Nah, I heard Giant Man shout something about a missile lock and then boom. Speaking of which." He moved over to the pilot's seat where both Giant Man and the Wasp lay unmoving. He took their pulses, then looked more closely at them. "I ain't no doctor, but their breathing's all right and they got steady pulses. We're going to have to take them to a hospital to get them checked up. How are the rest of you?" he shouted into the back portions of the ship.

"All present and accounted for," Hawkeye said, coughing a bit from the smoke that began filling the vehicle, courtesy of the smoldering ruins of the electronics system.

Captain Japan took charge of the situation. Pointing at a tear in the side of the vehicle, he said, "Hulk. Make that hole bigger so we can get out of here."

While not enthusiastic about taking orders from Captain Japan, the Hulk wanted to get out of the ship anyway, so he did as he was ordered. The titanium alloy gave with only the smallest fraction of the Hulk's strength.

The Hulk emerged from the wreckage, looking around. "Where did Hammer Girl GORMPH!"

The reason for the Hulk's sudden, garbled ending to his query was due to a small cylinder hitting him in the face. The object ruptured, causing some sort of red, plastic-like substance to explode over three-quarters of the Hulk's head.

The Hulk was confused and annoyed. Something was now covering his mouth, nose, and face. He grabbed at the substance, intent on throwing it off and smashing whoever had annoyed him this way. However, he quickly discovered a serious problem. The substance was so slick he couldn't seem to grip it. It took some twisting, using a great deal of strength, for his fingers to dig in well enough to get anything like a grip. Once he was convinced he had a good hold, he pulled. The material was very rubbery, and while it stretched out as far as his arm could go, it remained clinging to his face. He lost his hold on the slick substance, and it snapped back into place.

"What the hell is that?" Captain Japan started to emerge from the craft, intent on helping his comrade get rid of whatever the goop was.

"Get down!" Tigra shouted, grabbing Captain Japan by the back of the uniform and throwing him back into the ship. There was a zipping noise as something passed right by where the hero had been a moment before, and a ping as something ricocheted off the side of the quinjet.

"Is sniper," Tigra warned as the Hulk lumbered blindly away from them, trying to bellow in rage as he pulled at the substance engulfing his head.

"Any idea where he's firing from?" Captain Japan asked.

Daredevil edged closer to the hole. "I think from a building to the east, about three hundred yards away. They have an ideal view of the entire ship. No blind spots. They'll have multiple shots at anyone not used to using stealth."

"Damn, this whole thing stinks of a set up," Hawkeye hissed, examining the ruins of her bow.

"Maybe we should just rush out," Captain Japan suggested.

"No, I have a better idea." Daredevil smiled under his mask. "I… hey, where did Tigra go?"

All eyes searched the quinjet, but the were-woman was nowhere to be found.

"She was here a second ago," Hawkeye swore.

But she wasn't any longer, Daredevil's senses made him one hundred percent certain of that. It was remarkable that she could slip away without even him noticing, though he had hardly been focused on her. Still, she was almost as elusive as that Elektra woman.

It mattered little. He never relied on others when he could rely on himself. "She's not needed for what I have in mind. Anyway, here's the plan…"

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

High above, in an abandoned warehouse, Rally 'Bullseye' Vincent watched the wreckage of the quinjet, one eye on the crosshairs of her scope, the other watching the entirety of the downed ship. So far everything had gone mostly according to plan. Ideally, Nitro's explosion would have taken out everyone, but since Thor had spearheaded things, she had taken the brunt of the blast, and hopefully was dead. That was just as well, as Bullseye hadn't been confident the one shot 'Piercing Laser' would necessarily be fatal to someone that claimed divinity, and had yet to be debunked.

Iron Rose was a different story. Use technology against technology. Iron Rose had fallen to the Electro-Magnetic Override device, which had affixed itself to head and basically overrode her armor, telling it to shut down by attaching itself to the command system that had to be in her helmet.

The 'Goo' was working on the Hulk. Bullseye had been confident on that one as well, having been given a chance to see it in action. Expanding on contact with air, the substance formed a bond with whatever it was splashed on that would make super glue look like cheap masking tape. At least in the first second. After that, whatever wasn't in physical contact with a solid surface would then turn slick so one could get a good hold on it, and it was so rubbery it would stretch and contort even if one could. An ideal weapon against a one trick brute force pony like the Hulk, though Bullseye had plenty of somna gas capsules that would have done the trick as well.

The missile had brought down the quinjet, though it had taken disturbingly long for it to lock on to the vehicle despite her employer's contention that the tracking system was one of the best in the world. It was only because her employer was providing Bullseye with all of the (largely experimental) weapons that she was able to take out the more powerful super-heroes. Now all that was left was to blow away the remaining, far more vulnerable ones. And if she wanted to do it, she had to move fast, since Nitro would be on her way to the downed quinjet to get her share of the kills. They had a bet going with who could kill the most Avengers. The loser was to pay dinner for the winner for the duration of their stay in Japan, and Bullseye thought she might kill a few more superheroes just to see if she could find a good one.

Just poke your heads out, Bullseye thought to herself. She had nearly nailed the shield toting hero, but someone had pulled him out of the way just as she triggered her shot. She wanted a clean kill, wanted to see a head explode like a piñata full of blood, bone and brains. There had been a moment right after the shot when she thought she saw a strange shadow moving near the edge of the wreck, but it seemed impossible it was anything human. Most likely an illusion produced by the flames and smoke. A lot of smoke was starting to fill the area, thanks to the Nitro's gas explosion.

Then Bullseye saw it: a slender cable snake its way out the hole and around a telephone pole. The movement was quick and the cable nearly invisible. One person out of a thousand wouldn't have seen the motion.

Bullseye was one out of a million. Maybe ten million.

The red blur came streaking out of the hole, swinging on the line. Child's play. She was able to gauge his speed and distance in less than the blink of an eye. She held her breath and triggered the shot that would send a round of fifty caliber death through the air and burst her piñata.

The bullet struck the figure's head cleanly, making it explode in a shower of streamers and party favors.

Bullseye hesitated a full second before realizing she had been had. She tracked her rifle back to the hole, but there was nothing there. Her peripheral vision caught a red blur duck into the nearest building.

Fine. She would be having company soon. She had been prepared for this eventuality. Time to make sure everything was in readiness.

Bullseye abandoned her position and began stationing herself to use the room's set up. However, she had only pulled out her favorite Glock for close quarters work when she sensed more than saw the movement above her. While on a subconscious level she knew there was no way Daredevil had gotten to her this fast, the rest of her was in attack mode. She raised her gun up and snapped off two quick rounds on the vectors most likely to be used by an attacker above her while lowering her body for a tuck and roll. One bullet narrowly missed the cat girl's leg as Tigra leapt for her foe.

Claws shredded Bullseye's trenchcoat, rather than the flesh underneath that had been the target. Bullseye was impressed that the feline not only got the drop on her, but could shred bulletproof material like it was paper mache. Had she not been moving backward, the claws would have gutted something vital for certain.

Bullseye completed the tuck and roll and came up firing with both her original piece, and a second she had pulled from one of her numerous holsters. Tigra was quicker, darting through an empty doorframe and behind an old plasterboard wall that had fallen into disrepair. Bullseye fired through the thin wall, punching small holes in it, but with only one pistol while she switched to a heavier caliber firearm with her other.

She emptied a magazine and deliberately clicked twice with the empty firearm, despite having kept exact count on the bullets. The .357 she had drawn moving along the length of the wall. Come on out, Kitty Cat, she thought to herself.

A blur shot out from behind the wall and Bullseye fired, narrowly missing twice. Inhuman speed was the only thing that saved the critter. However before a third round could be fired, something came at her face from the direction of the blur. Instinctively she leaned to the right, a small white fang caressing the side of her cheek and slashing it open instead of burying itself in her cheekbone.

Bullseye recognized it as one of those supposedly 'ornamental' teeth that came with Tigra's outfit/bikini. There had been nothing in the dossier on the were-woman using ranged weapons, ones that could maim if they found their mark. Bullseye damned faulty intelligence as Tigra used the split-second evasion and launched herself at Bullseye.

This time Bullseye held her breath and dropped a pellet in front of her. It exploded in a cloud of greenish mist as Bullseye tried to shift left.

Claws raked her side, drawing blood as the blur shot past. However as Tigra landed, she began to have a violent coughing fit.

"Stink bombs aren't anything like catnip, are they?!" Bullseye shouted in English as she fired at the momentarily stationary felinoind.

It was a testament to Tigra's reflexes and agility that she evaded all but one of the bullets. The one that struck hit her in the side, the kinetic energy spinning her around and throwing her backward into a window that broke with the impact. She went tumbling out.

As Bullseye had hoped, Tigra did have an enhanced sense of smell. One wiff of SF's stink bomb would make a normal person vomit, which was why Bullseye had nose filters in place since the beginning. For Tigra it must have been like jamming a week old decomposing corpse up her nose.

Before Bullseye could walk to the window to confirm the kill, she again became aware of movement out of the corner of her eye. She brought her empty gun up, deflecting the thrown billy club aimed at her head.

Daredevil was coming at her from above. A dead man's move. She sprang back and pulled out another pistol, firing a round for center mass. Just as quick Daredevil brought an archaic shield out. Or at least archaic in appearance, since the bullet deflected. He must have been taking Captain Japan lessons.

Daredevil landed right in front of her and came up swinging. Bullseye's own reflexes were bordering on superhuman, which was how she rolled with the punch which only clipped her in the jaw instead of concussing her. She lashed out with a foot, catching him in the gut, as well as making him drop the shield. Off balance, she fired blindly in the hero's direction, driving him back.

Bullseye threw another capsule, this one a basic smoke bomb to blind her foe while she changed position, firing in the direction she had seen Daredevil in.

No cries of agony came from the smoke. Instead a chain came out, snaring her leg. A quick jerk put Bullseye on her back, hard. She was gasping for air as she fired a round at the chain, breaking it, then fired in the direction the chain had been in when it had been pulled tight, emptying her gun as she rose up and kicked the slack chain around her ankle away, staying in motion the whole time. Another capsule was drawn from the mini-bandolier around her waist and in her free hand.

A net woven of steel cable came at Bullseye, and she barely dodged it. Daredevil came emerging from the cloud in nearly the opposite direction.

Bullseye threw down the flash bomb. The special wraparound sunglasses her employer had given her tinted instantly, preventing her from being blinded. Now Daredevil was dead. It was too bad, as he had excited her more than anyone since the Underworld hit. Killing competent, professional, and old school hit men was always a turn on. But to all good things and whatnot.

Bullseye fired at Daredevil, who, impossibly, evaded the shot, as though he had been unaffected by the flash. Another billy club was thrown, knocking her gun out of her hand. That was followed up by a kick. She had only a split second to tighten her abdominal muscles before the blow hit, making her want to hurl the contents of her stomach.

Reeling backward, Bullseye pulled a knife and held it out in front of her. Daredevil seemed taken aback by the change in type of weapons. Good. Bullseye put a straight thrust at the hero, one that would fall a full meter short. He tensed up at the start of the thrust, as though to deflect it, then realized he was nowhere near the danger range. Instead it looked like he was going to follow up with another attack by drawing back yet another billy club that had appeared from his billowing sleeve.

At the maximum distance of the thrust, Bullseye hit a button on the handle and the blade shot forth. Somehow Daredevil managed to shift, just barely, while the blade was in mid-air. Bullseye heard him hiss in pain as it struck him in the chest, then deflected away. She smiled at his luck and felt herself become increasingly turned on by his survival instincts. Her heart rate increased and her body grew flush with arousal.

Daredevil dropped the billy club on the side he had been stabbed. The other one he threw at Bullseye, hitting her between the eyes and shattering the special set of sunglasses. The club drew blood as well, making her reel backward. She staggered toward a dilapidated stairway while Daredevil sought cover so he could assess his injuries.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Hasn't been any firing lately," Captain Japan said as the Hulk lumbered around outside, continuing to try and rip the substance on his face. Captain Japan had to hand it to the emerald behemoth: he was persistent. The Hulk hadn't made the least bit of progress in being able to remove the stuff. He had even hit himself in the face a few times, and still it stayed where it was.

What did concern Captain Japan was that the Hulk was starting to slow down, probably because he was running out of air. The shield-slinging hero knew he had to do something. No way was he sitting tight, watching while one of his comrades died, just because someone might shoot at him. Even without his father's prodding and his vow to become a heroic icon, he would have done something.

"I'm going out there," he informed Hawkeye.

The archer placed a restraining hand on him. "Wait. We haven't gotten a signal that all's clear from Daredevil." Or even the useless scaredy cat that had probably slunk off to some corner to hide, she thought.

"Doesn't matter. I gotta take the chance." He tried to move, but was again restrained by Hawkeye. "I told you—"

"I can help in case the sniper is still there."

"I thought your bow was broken in the crash."

"Yeah, and so was the backup I keep on board." Hawkeye lamented. "But I have my arrowheads. They're still effective when, I you know, throw them."

"Maybe we'll call you Grenade Guy, then."

Hawkeye swatted him on the shoulder. "Anyway, this one should provide a smokescreen. I'll throw it out next to the Hulk, then you run into the cloud."

Captain Japan nodded. Hawkeye pulled out the arrowhead, then drew back with it and threw it. Sure enough, a large cloud of smoked formed, obscuring the area between downed vehicle and enraged behemoth. It merged with the expanding cloud of smoke coming from the oil fires from the initial explosion, effectively obscuring the area.

No shots rang out as Captain Japan cut through the smoke, keeping his shield up to protect his head and body. He coughed only a little as he ran up next to the Hulk.

"Hey, Hulk!" Captain Japan shouted.

A fist nearly slammed into the hero, only his super soldier enhanced body enabling him to evade the blow.

"Hey, you lumbering ox, it's me, 'Shield Man'. I'm going to try and take that crap off you so quit trying to hit me, unless you like the idea of suffocation."

The Hulk paused for a moment, scratching at his head before nodding.

Captain Japan considered the situation. He came up with an idea. "I'm going to try and dig the edge of my shield right where that goop meets your flesh. With any luck the edge will be tough enough that it can wedge itself between your skin and that crap" He raised the shield up to a spot near the Hulk's throat. He paused for a moment. "Umm, by the way, it'll probably hurt like hell."

The Hulk shook his head furiously.

"Aw, come on, you big baby. You can take me ramming my shield into your throat a bit."

The Hulk shook his head again.

Before Captain Japan could continue, cries of distress came from the direction of the huge fire that was slowly consuming the docks. Emerging from the cloud of billowing smoke was a blond girl, about ten, in a cute dress. She cried out, "Help me, please!" as she ran for Captain Japan.

In response, Captain Japan threw his shield, catching the running girl in the ribs and knocking her to the ground. As the shield returned to his hand, the girl was left gasping on the ground, clutching her ribs in pain.

"How… how could… you do that… to a… little girl!" she gasped.

"Because any little girl that's at ground zero of a massive explosion, then comes running out of it and the only thing she has to show for it is crying like a baby, ain't really a little girl."

She continued gasping on the ground about ten meters from him. "Could you at least help me up? I think you broke my ribs." She held out an imploring hand.

"Like I'm going to get near you." He remained right where he was.

She continued coughing, "You're a cold bastard." And then she blew up.

Captain Japan grimaced at the detonation, feeling the wind from it move him back a step, though he was well away from the immediate blast radius. He looked back at Hawkeye. "I didn't make her do that. My shield doesn't blow up people it hits. Look." He swatted the Hulk in the stomach. "See?"

He narrowly avoided a Hulk-seized fist aimed at his head.

"Look!" Hawkeye shouted, pointing at where the girl had detonated.

Captain Japan watched as some of the smoke began to coalesce, definitely moving against the wind. It took a few moments as the smoke moved around, but eventually it gathered into a humanoid form. The mist hung in the air, then solidified, forming Nitro once again.

"Ooo, this could be a problem," Captain Japan conceded.

Nitro slapped her ribs, not wincing in the slightest. "All better. You see, it doesn't matter what you do to me. All I need to do is blow up, and when I reform, I'm as good as new. Let's see if the same thing happens to you when you blow up." She walked toward Captain Japan.

Unwilling to let the girl get close enough to encompass him in her detonation, the hero did the only thing he could think of and threw his shield again. Nitro exploded before the shield arrived, the blast hurling the shield away with enough force to bury itself a foot into brick wall, two stories off the ground.

Captain Japan looked sorrowfully at the now out-of-reach weapon. "Shoot." He turned back to Nitro and shouted, "Can't blow me up if you can't get close to me." He raspberried her while simultaneously sticking out his tongue.

That irritated Nitro. She ran at him, intent on drawing close enough to blow him to pieces. "What kind of stinking superhero are you, running away from a fight?

Hawkeye watched the chase began. She understood what the Captain's real goal was in keeping Nitro's attention away from the unconscious people in the quinjet. But what to do? There wasn't anything lying around she could use to create a makeshift bow. And even then, what sort of arrow did you use on someone that could just heal the damage by blowing herself up?

What they needed was some sort of equalizer, like the Hulk. He had gone back to trying to remove the goop from his head. He had to be running low on air. He had been talking when they stuff got him in the head, no way had he taken a breath. But if his strength couldn't get it off, what the hell could?

Wait, maybe a different approach was what was needed. Hawkeye ran up to the Hulk, hoping Nitro wouldn't notice and turn her attention to her. The archer shouted to the Hulk. "Listen up. I have an idea on how to free you, and it won't involve hitting you with a shield."

The Hulk nodded eagerly.

"Bend over so I can reach that crap on your head more easily."

The Hulk obediently bent at the waist, allowing easy access. Hawkeye pulled out one of her 'flaming' arrowheads. While the thing was designed to explode on impact, there was a setting on the arrowhead that could tighten the flame, almost like an acetylene torch. She held it next to the slick substance, then ignited the flame. It took a moment, but it burned the material, melting it off. Moreover the heat loosened some of the adhesion to the Hulk's skin, allowing a finger hold.

The flame gave out. Hawkeye said, "Try ripping it off now."

The Hulk found the hole the flame had created, got a hold of the edge, and pulled with all his might. The whole thing came off in one piece.

"You're free," Hawkeye congratulated.

"AAAAAAA!" The Hulk cried out.

"What is it?" Hawkeye asked, jumping back just in case he blindly lashed out.

"Hulk pull off too fast, like band-aid."

Hawkeye noticed that there was a bit of his air, and probably a good portion of surface skin, attached to the inside of the suffocating substance. She winced in sympathy.

The noise also attracted Nitro's attention. When she saw the Hulk free of his 'mask' she smirked and walked to him.

Hawkeye noticed and backed away, shouting at the Hulk. "Quick, smash her! She's a bad guy!"

The Hulk watched as Nitro walked up to him and smiled, mischievously. He looked back to the archer. "It's little girl. Hulk cannot smash little girls."

"Luckily we little girls can smash Hulks." Nitro threw a double punch at the Hulk's midsection. Just as her fists hit, her arms exploded. The force of the detonation hurled the Hulk away.

"Ha! That was easy!" Nitro laughed uproariously as her arms reconstituted themselves much more quickly than when her entire body blew up.

The Hulk picked himself up, rubbing his stomach. "Ouch. What did little girl do to Hulk?"

"This!" Nitro ran up and punched him again, blowing up her arm, knocking the Hulk backward again.

The Hulk scowled. "Now Hulk understands. Little girl is not really little girl. Little girl is really a robot. Hulk can smash robots!" He ran toward her, fists raised up in the air, intent on smashing her into the ground like a giant stake.

He was nearly in arm's reach when Nitro blew up her entire body, hurling him away again. Despite the force of the explosion, the Hulk picked himself up. He looked around. "Where did robot go?"

Once again smoke collected until it reformed Nitro. "Hey, you're pretty durable, big guy. Let's see how many explosions it takes until I get to the center of a Hulk."

"Hulk is not Tootsie-Pop!"

Nitro clapped. "Yay! You got my joke. That one goes over most people's heads. I can't wait to tell Rally one of my victims actually got that one!"

He ran forward, only to have the same thing happen again as he was blown backward by an exploding Nitro.

She reformed herself again. "I can do this all day. Good endurance, don't you know. It's one of the advantages of being trained in a top class bordello like the Purple Pussy."

The Hulk scratched his head. "Purple Pussy? What does Cat Girl have to do with little girl robot?"

Nitro's shoulders slumped in exasperation. "The sad thing is, you're about as dynamic a conversationalist as some of my old regulars. Anyway, come on. I want to win my bet with Rally and have her pay for my meals on this little trip. I Googled all of the most expensive restaurants in Tokyo just for the occasion."

The Hulk ran up, only to have the girl blow up on him long before he could lay a hand on her. He watched in irritation as the smoke began to collect. By now he figured out Nitro was that smoke, but what could he do to smoke?

The Hulk smiled as he remembered his fight with Speed Demon and what he did to the speedster. He brought his arms back, then slapped his hands together in a tremendous impact. The wind produced from the impact blew Nitro's cloud in a wide fan.

"Ha! Hulk has beaten little girl robot!"

His delight was short-lived as the cloud collected again. As Nitro reformed, she said, "All that does is prolong the inevitable."

The Hulk roared and charged again.

As the battle was fought, Captain Japan joined Hawkeye at her side, but she still felt helpless. The nature of their foe made her too dangerous to hit with anything other than a ranged weapon, and even then it seemed she could heal up from the damage.

As Nitro reconstituted herself again, an idea came to Hawkeye. It had been from when Nitro blew up her arms. They had gotten back together much more quickly than the whole body thing. Watching another explosion, Hawkeye saw that in the full body ones, the smoke didn't just simply fly back together. Some would go right in a spot, but other tendrils seemed to move around before remerging. So it mattered where the smoke went. She would only have one shot at this, because if it didn't work, Hawkeye had a bad feeling Nitro would be turning her attention to them, and she wagered it would take only one explosion to get to the center of a cross-dressing super-hero.

Nitro blew up again. It was then Hawkeye yelled, "Hulk, clap your hands again."

He did so, scattering Nitro. It was only a delaying effect as the smoke began to collect again.

This was it. "Now go to where the smoke is reforming, then breathe in really deep and hold your breath."

The Hulk did so. Given the tremendous size of his lungs, he was actually able to inhale some of Nitro before holding his breath.

The remaining smoke panicked and began to race around the Hulk, some of it began to leak out of his nostrils.

"Pinch your nose shut!" Hawkeye shouted as she raced to him.

The Hulk did so, looking a bit woozy as he held his stomach.

Hawkeye got another one of her arrows out and twisted the head on it. A small bag inflated. She pushed the gas in it out, deflating it, then brought the end of it up to the Hulk's mouth. "Exhale gently into the bag. Make sure you don't blow hard enough to rip the bag."

The Hulk did so. The instant he was done, Hawkeye tied the bag in a knot.

"Hulk will never smoke again," he swore.

The smoke that was Nitro swirled around the outside of the bag, and Hawkeye could feel the parts of her in the bag swirling around to get out, but her disembodied form couldn't create anywhere near enough force to tear open the bag. Hawkeye smiled. It was a good thing she had those helium filled balloon arrows. She had never been sure what she might use them for, but the ability to leave something floating in air had always been an idea that appealed to her.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

Daredevil couldn't believe what was happening. It felt like he was slowly getting beaten to death. He had been shot twice (well, each bullet only grazed him, but they were bleeding badly enough he would need stitches), stabbed near fatally, if not for the blade deflecting off a rib instead of burying itself in his heart, and generally felt like crap. What he wanted to do was go back for reinforcements, but there were explosions coming from the direction of the quinjet, and no one was answering their communication's card when he called.

As to Tigra's fate, he was uncertain. She had been shot just as he arrived --he had heard the bullet impact and throw her out the window-- but it hadn't been a fatal wound, and more importantly, he had not heard the sound of a body impact on the ground below. And then he found himself locked in a life and death struggle with a madwoman, and a madwoman she unquestionably was. While in the opening moments of the fight, her pulse had been that of a cool professional locked in a struggle, as the fight wore on, every sign of her body indicated she was becoming excited, rather than panicked, as things escalated. She was enjoying this, and not in the same way Wasp did when fighting super-villains.

Still, he had to see things through to the end. No way was he letting someone that had come so close to killing him get away. He had his pride, and he would never hear the end of it from the others. He could envision the rest of the team, well, the girls, saying how Captain Japan would never have let some gun-toting bimbo escape.

Daredevil bound his wounds with medical tape and tried to figure out the best way to go down the stairs without getting blown away. That was when he smelled the smoke wafting up from the stairwell.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Bullseye waited on the lower level for their climatic battle, in every sense of the word. In celebration, she had ignited the pools of gasoline she had set up on this level: her final trap. She was in bliss at every ache and pain she felt. Blood had run down her face from the head wound she had suffered, smoke made her eyes water, and she had never felt better. Daredevil was by far her favorite yet, outstripping even Goldie. Yes, she was killing him in pieces, and loving every second of it. And when she struck the fatal blow, she would know ecstasy like no other.

Bullseye grew impatient. "Come on down, Daredevil! I want to play with you in my personal hell just a little while longer!"

She wondered if he would try the direct assault, or come from another direction. He was very, very tricky. She still hadn't figured out how he had kept from being blinded by the light bomb. Maybe he had special lenses like she had used?

And then she saw a shifting shadow at the top of the stairs. Not quite enough to take a clear shot, but now she knew where he was coming from, and she thought she knew how.

A cable snaked down to a wall support, and she knew what he was up to. How disappointing, using the same trick twice. Sure enough. A figure swung down the stairs right into plain view. Bullseye could just make out something shadowy at the top of the stairs, behind the obvious fake.

The first figure was nearly upon her when the second launched itself downward. She hit the second figure three times, two shots in the chest and one in the head. Snowy fluffiness popped out of each hole, and she saw the wire leading from the dummy to the first figure that had leapt.

Xxxx

Daredevil heard her hiss, "Yessss!" as she brought her gun to bear on him. It was too late. He would hit her with a knockout blow.

She fired one shot. It missed him but hit his cable, throwing off his trajectory ever so slightly. Still he slammed into her, landing on top awkwardly, sending shards of pain from his chest wound as the fall reopened it and blood flowed freely from the cut. At least the impact had knocked the gun out of her hand, leaving her defenseless.

He straddled her, pinning her down with his body and he could practically feel the sexual arousal cut through the confusion of flame and smoke, which were threatening to overwhelm his senses. One more good shot would end the fight. He drew his fist back, intent on punching her lights out.

Lightning fast Bullseye's arm came up in a wide arc, a hold out derringer slipping from up her sleeve in the same manner Daredevil's weapons did. It was pointed directly at his left eye.

He moved his head even as the barrel came up. The bullet whizzed past, but almost as equally damaging was the sound of the gun going off next to his ears. The loud crack by the small firearm overloaded his heightened sense of hearing as though someone had jammed a needle right into his ear drum. He cried out at the top of his lungs at the pain, and didn't hear a sound.

Instinctively he brought his fist down in Bullseye's face, cracking a cheekbone.

"Oh my god!" Bullseye's cried out in delirious joy as her other arm came up. She flicked her wrist in the middle of the motion, producing a small bladed knife, which promptly buried itself deep into Daredevil's shoulder.

The pain was too much. Everything was coming at him from all sides, all sense of reality was eradicated in a miasma of pain, blood, and overloaded senses as a hundred different agonies became the center of his existence. The reptile portion of his mind lashed out, as his remaining working arm came down, smashing into Bullseye's face, cracking her jaw. A second blow shattered in orbital bone. He lashed out with a third, leaving his fist bloody. And then a fourth. And then Bullseye's body convulsed so violently even Daredevil was almost thrown off.

"Yessss!" Bullseye gurgled more than groaned in pleasure. The totally inappropriate reaction cut through the haze, making even the darkest portions of his mind cease in stunned realization of what had just happened to the girl beneath him. Even he was shocked that what was a life and death struggle to him was some sort of perverse mating ritual to the girl he straddled.

"Who loves ya, baby?" Bullseye moaned and released her hold on the object in her hand. It hit the floor in two parts.

Daredevil was barely able to focus his radar sense as the sound reached his ears: a grenade with the pin pulled.

"No!" He reached back and batted the grenade aside with a billy club, then sprawled himself over Bullseye.

The grenade went off, debris flying everywhere. Several shards of metal dug into Daredevil's flesh, making yet more blood flow from him onto the girl beneath him. But not in any vital areas. Just more pain to add to the tally. He should pass out now, he knew it. He went through more than any ten men should. It was time to sleep.

But there was the sound of groaning beneath him, and not from the crazed hitwoman. His stomach dropped as he realized what the noise portended just as it happened. Fire and explosions had made the rotted floor gave way right beneath them. Instinctively Daredevil reached out to grab onto anything, and came up with the shattered remains of a metal crossbeam that arrested his fall. Unfortunately, it was with his bad arm. He screamed out in more agony, more wide awake than ever before in his life. No, he was never going asleep again, feeling like this.

Dimly he was aware of Bullseye falling as well. Below them was the ground floor. Concrete had been torn up in a pile, with many, many jagged metal pipes, used for support, sticking up. And Bullseye was falling right toward them.

While a portion of his mind insisted she should die, a victim of her own violence, it felt too much like he was failing her in some way. He swore never to fail anyone, not after Shampoo. He didn't know why he would connect the two, since they had nothing in common, but it was there.

With his free hand he lashed out with a cable from a billy club. The cable looped around Bullseye's arm, arresting her fall by tearing the arm out of the socket.

Bullseye didn't cry out at the pain, as she dangled less than two feet over an exposed metal shaft which would have impaled her. Instead she stared at her savior, with a gaze of love that only the insane can achieve.

And then she passed out.

Daredevil cried out at the top of his lungs as his own wounded shoulder was nearly ripped out of its socket. But somehow he held on, stopping her, leaving her dangling from his hand.

And then his injured shoulder gave way, his hand slipped, and he fell.

There was a sensation of floating, and of the pure stupidity of what he had just failed to accomplish in rescuing someone who didn't deserve to be rescued, and killing himself in the process.

And then his flight stopped abruptly as something snared his wrist, making him wish he was dead as his body was jerked with a force no human should have to endure, from wounds no one should have to survive.

He saw the feline face of Tigra looking down at him. "Tigra arrive just in time," she said delightedly.

"No," Daredevil said weakly. "'Just in time' would be before I was shot, stabbed, and mutilated. This is 'almost too late'." And then he passed out, though somehow, his deathgrip on his billy club held true, even after Tigra pulled both he and his unconscious foe up.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

"You really ought to go with the paramedics to the hospital. You're in bad shape," Giant Man said as he finished wrapping up the slash inflicted by the shooting blade.

Daredevil looked like a half finished mummy with all of the bandages wrapped around his body. "You said all of the wounds were clean."

Giant Man was confident in his medical skills and diagnosis, but professionalism made him urge, "Well, yes, but anything can happen."

"A hospital would ask too many questions." The way Daredevil said it effectively ended the conversation. His senses reached out to the others surrounding him. Obviously they had been concerned, but he could feel them relax a bit. Their care made him feel, awkward.

Thor said, "It is most unfortunate I caught the full brunt of the blast, which did hurl me far away, as well as knock me senseless for the majority of the fight, else you would not have been wounded so grievously."

"Tigra not too bad. Bullet wound heal fast." She showed off a place where blood had matted her fur. There was a good bit of it, but no hole. Just a red spot where the bullet entered, and another one where it had exited.

Hawkeye examined the cut more closely. "You regenerate?"

"Guess so," Tigra said.

"Wait, you don't even know if you regenerate or not?" Hawkeye asked.

There was a half-second's hesitation before Tigra said, "Never been shot before."

Before the archer could press onward, Iron Rose snarled at a collection of shattered fragments in her hand. "Blast! This thing broke when I landed on it. While its destruction freed me, it's in too many pieces to figure out how it worked."

"So?" Wasp asked.

"So I want to know how it overrode my armor so I can take measures to prevent it from happening again." She threw the fragments down in disgust.

"Everything turned out okay in the end." Captain Japan said as they watched the authorities take away the pair of assassins. Nitro was kept in two different air-tight, metal containers so she couldn't reform. Each would be transported and stored in separate locations.

On the other hand, Bullseye was injured badly enough she was being transported to a hospital, under heavy guard and sedation.

As she was wheeled into the back of the ambulance, she turned a dreamy eye toward the bandaged hero. Despite her drugged state, she was able to focus enough on him, and think clearly enough to say, "Oh baby, we cut each other into so many pieces. It hurts so much, even through the drugs, and I know you're in pain. So wonderful. You're the only one for me. Let's have a proper finish next time, Love."

Daredevil shuddered, mostly because it wasn't just talk on the madwoman's part. Even through her drug-induced haze he could feel her desire reaching out for him.

As the ambulance doors closed, Captain Japan said, "Well, congratulations on having someone in your rogue's gallery that isn't a complete putz. The bad news is, she's a complete psychopath and is in love with you."

"I'd rather fight Leap Frog and his Tadpoles of Doom again," Daredevil said, and meant every word of it.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[End chapter

Weee, After a seven month hiatus, a full chapter. Two subplots mostly wrapped up. Next up we move on to the Phantom Cat arc as things really set into motion there.


	33. Act III Animal Chap 8

Avenging

Avenging

Act III

The Animal Farm

Chapter 8

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Akemi Shutaro listened to the familiar sounds of other reporters and cameramen milling about the room with the press conference only minutes from getting underway. Looking around, she noted most of them were regarded as 'third stringers' or worse, completely unrecognizable. It was like the old days of her toiling in obscurity instead of conducting the high profile interviews she should have been getting, and perhaps wouldn't be seeing ever again. Her thoughts turned bitterly back to the day everything had changed…

Xxxxxxxxxxx

Akemi puffed away on a cigarette in the one of the less used corridors of Channel 4 news, despite the "no smoking' policy in the building. She tapped her foot, wanting to kill something. She had covered enough unsolved murder cases in her time that she could get away with it. Most of them went unsolved. Her mind started plotting the perfect murder when a voice behind her interrupted her train of thought.

"So, our young and eager rising star has discovered the grim horrors of working for others."

Akemi turned to see Abe Kosaka had come up behind her. The man was an institution within an institution. He was mostly a beat reporter that had the occasional big story, and had been that way for the last forty years. He was also unlikely to ever be anything else, despite nearly winning a Pulitzer for a scandal he broke twenty years ago. Rumor had it he was on the outs with the higher ups, and the only reason he was still around was because he had an information network second to none, and knew where all the bodies of his superiors were buried, so to speak.

Akemi hadn't crossed paths with the man at anything other than the usual company function, and couldn't understand why he was here. "What's that supposed to mean?" she bit out angrily.

Abe broke out a cigarette of his own and lit up. The corridor near the janitors' closets was the unofficial area where people went to smoke when it was too inconvenient to go outside of the building. "Heard you got bumped from the Ariyoshi interview."

That opened the floodgates, and not in a good way as Akemi finally gave release to her built-up anger, unheeding of the words or who might hear them. "Those bastards! The producer tells me I'm being given the interview. So I say great, I have a really trusted source close to Ariyoshi that's been telling me the councilwoman has an inside line on the ALF so I can ask her about that. Well, the producer cuts things short and ends the meeting. I come in the next day and he tells me I've been dumped, I'm sorry, I mean 'reassigned' to a press conference for the umpteen millionth shuttle launch of yet another satellite, while that clod, Toji, gets the Juna interview." She ended things with a string of colorful epithets learned from her trash mouth aunt that her parents had never wanted her to hang around.

Abe took a long drag and smiled. "I see you failed to do a proper investigation on your employers. Otherwise you would have known that our esteemed owner and president was a major supporter of Councilwoman Ariyoshi, holding fundraisers and printing glowing editorials on how she not only walks on water, but purifies it as she does so."

Akemi bristled. "I know that, but a story's a story, damnit! One shouldn't have anything to do with the other."

Abe sounded winsome as he waxed nostalgic. "Ah, my dear, but one reporter's story is another's hatchet job. Oh, don't get me wrong. I'm sure our esteemed president went to the country club he and councilwoman Ariyoshi belong to and over drinks asked, 'I heard a nasty rumor today that a source close to you claims you have close connections to the ALF,' and the councilwoman replied, 'That's absurd. I do not now nor ever have had any connection to the ALF or any similar organization.' And then our president thanked her and congratulated himself on conducting a magnificent investigative report, then had a servant bring her another round."

Akemi turned crimson as she swore under her breath.

Abe seemed satisfied by the reaction. "A wise editor, a rarity in our business, once said 'I don't care if my reporters are sleeping with elephants, as long as they aren't covering the circus.' That's why I'll never cover my beloved Yomiuri Giants, may they win the pennant every year, or actor Takao Yamaguchi, may he burn in hell for an eternity." He pulled his cigarette from his mouth and wagged it at Akemi, spilling ashes on the floor. "You want to be a real reporter, take no sides in anything in either private or public life. That's the sacrifice a reporter makes. Let me see your wallet."

"Why?" Akemi asked, bewildered at the request.

Abe just waved his hand toward him, indicating she should hand it over. Amazingly she found herself digging it out of her purse and handing it to him.

He took a moment to look through it, pulling out a single card. "You only belong to a gym. How's your voting record?"

Since they were throwing famous quotes around. "'I never vote for politicians, it only encourages them'."

Abe smiled at the foil. "I always liked Twain. Good satirist. If you get the chance, read him in English rather than Japanese. It loses something in the translation." He took one more drag on his cigarette, then went over to a nearby drinking fountain and ran water over it to extinguish it.

"Now you're at a crossroads. While it might be your first, it won't be your last," he informed her. "You can go up to our president and apologize for casting groundless accusations about the councilwoman's integrity. You'll be in the doghouse for a while, but a little brown nosing and watching what you say will get you back in his good graces. Or you can dig away at the truth and get consigned to a low level position for eternity, or fired when you step on the wrong toes. Your call."

Akemi took a long drag on her cigarette, then mirrored Abe's putting it out under the running water. She pulled out a sealable plastic bag from her purse, put her now extinguished remainder in it, then held it open for Abe.

"The janitor hates it when people leave cigarettes on the floor in here."

"Now that's investigative reporting." He put his in the bag as well.

Akemi released a resigned sigh, then squared her shoulders and said in a voice filled with conviction, "A reporter attached to a desk is just a spokesperson."

Abe held out his hand, which she shook. "Now, as a form of introduction into the ranks of true reporting, I shall teach you a valuable lesson. Real reporters don't drink in country clubs. We drink in hole-in-the-wall dives that have atmosphere. I'll take you to one and the first round is on me."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Akemi still remembered the hangover the next day. It might have been a dive, but the booze (and it was 'booze', not 'drinks') still hit you between the eyes. Luckily she hadn't accidentally slept with anyone, especially Abe. He might have been as good a mentor as a reporter could hope for, but to be romantically involved with someone as old as him made her shudder.

Akemi came back to the present as the spokesperson for Japan's recently blossoming space program took the podium. Microphones were moved into position as everyone prepared for his speech.

The man began, "This is a momentous occasion. As you know, we've been working hard putting a number of satellites into orbit with the assistance of General Communications Systems. In fact, they've been financing everything, which has helped our space program immensely. I am proud to announce that the majority of these recent launches have been part of giant communications network which will not only improve Japan's systems, but the world's. And the final pieces of that system will be going up in the launch four days from now."

That caught Akemi, and every other reporter's, interest. While everyone knew GCS had been working with the government, no one had any idea that they had been footing the entire bill. Powerful or not, that had to have taken nearly all of their resources, and if this didn't pan out, there were going to be many irate stockholders. Moreover, the head of GSC was some man known only as 'Mr. Comrade.' Other than being Russian, no one knew anything about him.

Everyone loved a mystery.

Akemi broke protocol by interrupting. "If this occasion is so momentous, why doesn't Mr. Comrade let us know himself?"

The spokesman frowned. "Mr. Comrade does not make public appearances."

A guttural voice, one that sounded like it wasn't intended for human speech, came from off stage. "Perhaps it is time for me to do so."

The man that walked up to the podium was short, no more than four feet high, and deformed. While it wasn't so noticeable in the body, other than a slight limp from one leg being a bit longer than the other, the face and cranium bordered on hideous. His skull was oversized, as though his brain was a balloon that had been over-inflated. One eye was larger than the other, and he had a horrific overbite.

Most of the reporters gasped, but Akemi didn't blink. This was nothing compared to seeing the Hulk up close and personal.

The spokesman removed the microphone so Mr. Comrade could speak.

"As you may have surmised, I am Mr. Comrade. My name was formerly Yuri Topolov, though my Soviet masters referred to me as 'The Gargoyle' for obvious reasons. For all of my deformities, I am something of a genius in sciences. My former masters saw fit to have me create weapons for them, and after the fall of the USSR, I began using my genius for myself, creating a financial empire in communications. However, recently," he looked pointedly offstage. "A woman has entered my life and changed my outlook upon it.

"My anger and hatred at a race that has treated me like a freak has disappeared. Now I wish to help everyone by using my vast fortune to create a communications network that will revolutionize the world. To date, thanks to the assistance of the Japanese government, we have built, not many communication satellites, but rather one communications station which will be able to cover the entire world using a unique form of energy. Any television, radio, computer, even cell phones, will be able to receive the signal. Moreover, I will be offering this for nothing to everyone. It is my gift to the world, for only through communication can peace and love be spread throughout. I will take any questions you have now."

The room was a riot of sound and noise as everyone began asking questions. Akemi smiled to herself. Well, it looked like it wasn't going to be a slow day after all.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The Gargoyle left the podium and walked off stage, rejoining the tawny-haired beauty waiting for him out of sight of the room jammed with reporters. The light of his life. The apple of his eye. Such sayings were only cliché to those who did not feel the emotion they were intended to evoke.

"So how was that, Felicity mrph—" He found his question cut off as the girl lifted him up and planted a big kiss on his lips. While he didn't weigh much, she was deceptively powerful, and he wouldn't want her any other way.

"It was magnificent, my Little Comrade," she said as she put him down.

He felt himself blush at her accolade. Holding hands, the two departed for his limousine. Most gave them a wide berth, despite his lover's great beauty. He might have cared once in the past, but no longer. One woman's love outweighed a race's disgust. And that would be changing in short order as well.

The Gargoyle smiled, a bit of a problem given the deformity of his facial muscles, but he couldn't help himself. "To think, in less than a week, the final component will be launched, ushering in an era of intercommunication and understanding. The human race will finally have a chance at ending war and creating lasting peace."

Felicity gave a wide toothy, grin. "Oh yes, I'm certain it will mean an end to all strife among humanity. Yes indeed."

He missed the momentary changing of her pupils from round circles to vertical slits, only to change back again.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Captain Japan looked at his cards. Initially, poker night at Avengers mansion with his teammates sounded good. It gave him something to do with the money he got from his salary as an Avenger. And he was a great card player. He couldn't remember ever losing a game. Not that he played all that often. Still, he was a nice guy, and swore he'd go easy on everyone. He wouldn't take more than half of what they came to the table with before bowing out. He was an icon of heroic virtue, after all.

However, his plans had been for naught, his luck running bad all night long, almost as though a super-villain had hit him with some sort of bad luck mojo. But not this time. Oh no. Five card stud, no wilds, and for the first time in his life he had drawn a straight flush. On the draw, no less. If he played it right, he would deal everyone a crushing defeat Captain Japan style.

"Let's open up," Captain Japan said. "I'll begin the bidding with a thousand yen."

A chorus of "Fold"s, met him from around the table.

Captain Japan turned as red as Daredevil's uniform. "What the heck?" He slammed his cards down on the table face up, revealing his hand. "That's the third time tonight I had a great hand and everyone folded on me! What's going on?"

Tigra spoke first. "Might as well say. Playing cat and mouse no fun when mouse have four broken legs."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Captain Japan snapped.

"Hunky Cap have too, too obvious 'tell'."

"I do not!" he insisted.

Thor shook her head. "In truth, thou doth have a most glaring tell."

"Well what is it?"

Hawkeye said, "You smile when you have a good hand, and pout when you don't."

"But I'm wearing a mask!"

Giant Man said, "With the mouth cut out, like mine." He smiled, then pouted as an example.

Captain Japan's fist hit the table hard enough to make it bounce. "Then how does Daredevil know? He's blind."

"I can read your heart rate and tell from that how good your hand is. Oh crap."

"So that's why you've been doing so well," Wasp said, glaring at the large pile of chips the blind adventurer had accumulated.

"Let's call it a night." While Ryouga was glad he was spending time around the Avengers non-Hulked out for a change, he felt a bit guilty at shunning Ukyou, even if she had told him to take the night off since she was closing the shop.

"Wait, I want a chance to get my money back," Captain Japan insisted.

Iron Rose stared at him through the slits of her face plate. "You can't possibly succeed. Daredevil can tell from your heart rate whether you have a good hand or not." But when she put a fake pulse regulator in her armor, he was the one who would fall to her superior intellect.

"All I got to do it control my heart rate, and I'll be fine."

"Let's try something." Hawkeye grabbed the deck of cards and took several seconds to sort through them, eventually coming up with two hands which she kept face down. She slid them to Captain Japan. "All right. Check out each of these hands."

He did so.

Hawkeye looked at the others. "All right, which was the good hand and which was the bad?"

"First hand good. Second hand real crap." Everyone nodded at Tigra's assessment.

"If you can't even control your facial expressions, how do you expect to control your heart rate?" Ryouga asked. The guy really reminded him of Ranma. Just a mindless need to win no matter what, or how stupid, the contest.

"Let me try again," Captain Japan insisted.

Before the others could force the shield-slinger into gamblers anonymous, their manservant, Sasuke, entered the room, shouting, "Master Avengers! Master Avengers!"

Iron Rose cleared her throat menacingly.

"Ah yes, and Mistress Avengers, something is happening on television you must see." He activated the central media column (which had screens on all sides) and began hitting buttons, trying to find the proper station.

"Is it a super-villain trying to destroy the city?" Wasp sounded eager.

"Worse." Sasuke continued flipping through the stations.

"What could be worse than a super-villain?" Hawkeye asked.

The screen finally settled on the proper station.

"Why yes, a politician would be worse," Iron Rose stated flatly at the image of Councilwoman Juna Ariyoshi on the screen, sitting in what must have been her home, being interviewed by Toji Yamamoto.

Thor said, "Asgard has no such creatures as 'politicians'. Once some individuals did insist to the All Father that politicians were 'needed to make the realm fair and just', and by some coincidence, they were ready to fill such 'necessary' positions. Odin did resolve the matter be decreeing that if they could convince Surtur to not 'cleanse Asgard with fire', as he had attempted to do on several occasions, Odin would consider it. They accepted the challenge."

"What happened?" Daredevil asked.

"Surtur sent a message thanking mine father for the kindling. Evidently politicians burn well and long."

"Listen to what the Councilwoman has to say," Sasuke pleaded.

The conversation went silent around the table as he raised the volume.

Judging from the tone, Juna was in the middle of a building speech. "You heard me correctly, Toji. These Avengers are a menace on every level. Their most recent involvement in the destruction of several oil storage tanks caused catastrophic ecological harm to a significant area of one of our most important ports. Have you seen the damage to the area? It looks as though it was a war zone, though in truth it was just these self-proclaimed 'heroes' engaging in their usual brand of horseplay, unmindful of the damage and billions of yen it will take to restore the area, as well as contributing to our rising gas prices.

"And then there's the tragedy with the ALF. Just as a dialogue was about to be opened with the group, the Avengers invaded the building like a bunch of jackbooted storm troopers and caused the deaths of a number of ALF members under mysterious circumstances."

In patient yet sympathetic tones, Toji said, "The Avengers claim most of the dead took their own lives when they threatened to blow up the building."

"In an explosion which killed only them." Each word spoke heavily of disbelief and disgust. "We only have the Avengers' word that any such conversation took place. There was absolutely no evidence anyone in the ALF was now or ever suicidal. And as to the explosives that were supposed to destroy the building, they never went off, and the Avengers conveniently sent the 'explosives' to another dimension before they could be examined. Now does this sound like a bunch of coincidences, or a carefully contrived plot to destroy an animal rights group to you?"

"I don't think my boss would buy those sorts of excuses if I was trying to cover my backside, no." Toji laughed in good natured fun. "They have included an animal person in their ranks, though."

"As a teammate, or a pet?" Footage ran of the Hulk petting Tigra when she was first voted on the team. The picture cut back to Juna. "Here's more evidence of their destructive tendencies. These photos." The screen showed photographs of a ravaged section of some unnamed countryside. "Were released by SHIELD, showing the hideous destruction the Hulk is capable of. There was once a beautiful hill and forest there. Thanks to that menace, it's been blown off the face of the Earth, inflicting environmental damage on a planet that is already teetering on the brink."

Ryouga said, "Hey, that hill attacked me first! It was trying to take over the planet!"

Even his teammates didn't look like they believed that one.

"That is quite gruesome," Toji agreed.

"Their actions are gruesome," Juna insisted. "They've inflicted billions of yen in damages, been suspected of mass murder, caused massive ecological damage, and even gone so far as to attack a number of handicapped people. Most would call that a hate crime. They call it 'justice'."

"We ain't never attacked no handicapped people!" Captain Japan insisted.

"I think she's referring to Bushmaster and Commander Kraken," Giant Man pointed out.

"Kraken was a slaver wanted in over forty countries!"

"He was technically handicapped."

"His peg leg shot laser beams!"

Juna's speech reached a crescendo. "This group consists of a religious fanatic with delusions of godhood."

"What insolence!" Thor's hammer cracked the meeting table in half.

"An ultra-nationalist who drapes himself in our country's flag."

"I'm just trying to be a heroic icon," Captain Japan insisted.

"A Satanist."

Daredevil, who had kept his cool, jerked in his seat. "I'm an atheist! The costume is intended to strike fear into the hearts of evil doers, not indicate any religious tendencies!"

"A creature with the power of a nuclear bomb and the intelligence of a child."

"Tigra's not that tough and much smarter than that!" Ryouga insisted.

Tigra's eyebrows twitched fiercely at that one.

"A would-be Robin Hood who gives nothing to the poor."

"Keeping poor people from having the world blown out from under them counts!" Hawkeye insisted.

"And a tin-plated mercenary. All in the employ of one of the largest gun runners in the world."

"Gun runner? Gun runner?!" Iron Rose raged. "Kunou Industries deals in more than weapons! We build agricultural equipment, make pharmaceuticals, give free computers to schools, and other non-weapon oriented things!"

"They completely skipped me," Wasp said, crestfallen.

"You'd better kill that before the whole mansion gets destroyed," Giant Man suggested, relieved he had been skipped over.

Sasuke wisely turned off the screens, already lamenting the cleaning that would have to be done with the shattered ruin of the heavily reinforced meeting table.

The raging went on for a good fifteen minutes before it finally petered out. Once calm began to take place, Iron Rose spoke.

"Take it from someone that's used to bad press, we're going to need damage control before people start spray painting 'baby killers' on our front door."

"The defense systems will neutralize them harmlessly," Hawkeye said.

"And then we'll be labeled as attacking protesters."

"Legally they'll be trespassing," Daredevil pointed out.

Iron Rose shook her head. "Given the hatchet job we just got, I'm sure that fact will be determined as 'irrelevant' when the story is run. Which sells more papers, "Avengers stop illegal trespassers' or 'Avengers attack protesters'?"

"There was nothing libelous in there," Daredevil confirmed. "Technically everything was accurate, just framed in an… unappealing light."

"It was self-defense against that hill," Ryouga said firmly.

"Well, Kunou Industries will go on an aggressive advertising campaign to restore our image; that's what the PR people are paid for, after all, but we'll have to take personal steps to redeem ourselves in the eyes of the people."

"What dids't thou have in mind?" Thor asked.

"I was thinking autograph session," Iron Rose said. "It's benign and harmless. What could go wrong with that?"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Damn, we blew the shit out of this place, didn't we?"

"What do you mean 'we'? You did it when you tried to feed that nicotine habit of yours with a defective flamethrower."

"Oh. Yeah. I guess so. Speaking of which, does anyone got a light?"

"Don't you ever learn?"

"Anyhow, now that we've been let back into our burned out offices, it's time to figure out how to stop the Tigra from reuniting with the Phantom Cats. Although she seems to be doing a good job of it herself since she's still with the Avengers instead of the Phantom Cats, getting it on with the Balkatar, and opening a portal which would allow an entire dimension of the buggers over to our world."

"Youse want us to stop her permanent-like, though? No sense in takin' chances, right?"

"Exactly. Now, we need a foolproof plan to confront and destroy her. Any ideas?"

"How about we go to the autograph session the Avengers are holding and nab her there?"

"Taba, that is the most stupid idea I've ever heard."

"But boss, his idea's pretty good, actually."

"Oh, I guess it is. I'm so used to his ideas being dumb, I did it reflexively. Okay, let's decide how to ambush her."

"How's about we go in guns blazing and take her out dat way?"

"We always do that. Let's try some strategy instead."

"How about each of us take a target our abilities are best suited for and challenge them one-on-one?"

"Taba, that's the most stupid—"

"Good idea, boss. Good idea."

"Shoot. Reflexes again. Ah well, if I didn't have quick reflexes, I wouldn't be able to impale Phantom cats on my bolts before they could kill me. Okay, as to the one-on-one combat situation, since it was your idea, Taba, you'll be taking on the Hulk."

"… I hate my job."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Captain Japan sighed, uncertain if this was what it meant to be a heroic icon. Really, sitting at a table in a sporting goods store signing autographs seemed so… regular. True, it was an attempt at restoring his and his comrades' public image, but the least the others could have done was all show up. Wasp said Giant Man was busy with office hours for his job, and Iron Rose had to do the bodyguard thing for Kodachi Kunou at some important business meeting. Ryouga/Hulk got lost on the way here, and Thor had to work her job, too, though what job required the use of a thunder goddess was beyond him. It was hurricane season. Maybe she had to make storms over the Pacific or something?

That left a delighted Wasp, a sullen Daredevil, and a scowling Hawkeye --scowling at Tigra, to be specific—and one eager were-woman who was constantly draping herself all over him. Or worse, trying to do some things under the table which really would have dragged his name through the mud if anyone knew of them. And his mother, dear god, he didn't want to know how she'd react to Captain Japan getting caught in a situation like that.

"I should have come as Bucky," he muttered under his breath.

The next person in his line came forward for an autograph. She was a rather attractive woman, nearly as buxom as the cat girl next to him.

"Can I have an autograph?" she asked.

"Sure. Ah, I'll need something to write on?" He looked around trying to find a piece of paper.

Rather than pulling out a piece of paper, she leaned forward and undid her top enough to show a very scandalous amount of cleavage. "Could you sign here?"

Before he could make an awkward excuse, Tigra slid in-between him and the girl. "Tigra can scratch her name there, if want." She flashed a sharpened claw.

The girl gave a screech and ran off.

"Oh yeah, great idea for redeeming our image." They didn't need Juna to make them look bad; they could manage it on their own just fine.

As Captain Japan bemoaned his fate, he heard yet another person try to get Hawkeye to give them a signed arrow… from the archer's quiver. Really, people were so rude. Those things didn't grow on trees. Well, actually the wooden ones he had did grow on trees, but a lot of them were fiberglass or some other substance. So not all of them grew on trees. Just some.

Suddenly there was a movement from one of the lines and several people cried out as they were shoved aside. A figure threw aside a trenchcoat, revealing a man in a jet-black, skintight bodysuit, showing off a slender form. He shouted out, "I am—"

A stun arrow struck him in the head, instantly rendering him unconscious.

"I thought it was my turn," Daredevil said to Hawkeye, who was putting the bow back in its spot next to the chair.

"No, you knocked out guy with the bug eyes and creepy voice."

"The Bug-Eyed Voice," the Wasp supplied as security dragged the unconscious form away. "Who was this one, do you suppose?"

"Does it really matter?" Captain Japan asked in a tired voice. Only a complete moron would try to jump them at a public function. Or morons. They had stopped not only the two that were mentioned, but El Tigre (who had no feline powers whatsoever, just a whip and bolo), the Mad Viking (some eighty year old guy dressed in a Viking uniform) the Feathered Felon, (who made the Gamecock look tough) and not one, but two separate Manglers (muscleheads with no superhuman strength whatsoever). The heroes had been taking turns knocking the imbeciles out to keep from getting bored. Hawkeye had the fastest knockout now. Captain Japan vowed to be quicker with the shield, just in case the archer felt like bragging. No sense in letting him get too egotistical. It could lead to a mistake in combat.

Captain Japan was just about to lament his fate when the sound of shattering glass and masonry came from behind them. The people in the lines screamed and ran away while the heroes spun around. To their surprise, someone had crashed a giant semi through the wall, the entire vehicle coming through and remaining impossibly undamaged. Through the front windshield they could see a mass of figures, including a driver who wore a green bodysuit with a hideous, hairy pig headpiece on the top of her skull.

"We're here," the driver called out, fishing out a cigarette, lighting it, and taking a deep drag as she shifted her seat back and propped her feet on the dashboard.

The opposite door opened and a group of people shouted as they came spilling out, limbs entangled in a mass of flesh.

More idiots, Hawkeye intended to use the confusion to put them down with a blast arrow. The archer launched one at them, but it was intercepted in midair by a metal shaft.

Hawkeye turned to see that someone other than the driver had remained behind in the vehicle, popping up through a hatch in the top of the driver's cab. She was dressed in a forest-green outfit that did resemble one of Robin Hood's merry men, purple domino mask over her face. She held a crossbow with what looked like a drum magazine on the bottom. Cocking back on the weapon like a shotgun, the string was pulled back and locked as another bolt loaded into place.

"Nobody move!" she announced.

"What about us?" a voice moaned from the pile.

"Of course you guys can move."

The mass of limbs sorted itself into a quartet of individuals wearing a variety of outfits. One was a well-built woman in a leotard and with pounders --metal bands worn on her hands like a pair of brass knuckles-- at the ready. A second figure was dressed in a small, frilly, blue dress, making her look more like a teenager than super powered being. She wore a set of skates on her feet and two odd devices attached to wristbands looped around her wrists. A third was a rather androgynous girl wearing a white suit reminiscent of an American gangster from the 1920's, complete with Tommy gun. The last was a man wearing a regular business suit, also armed with a crossbow. All of them wore masks identical to the girl who had launched the first bolt.

"Let me guess, you're called Crossbow," Captain Japan said.

"You got it, and my companions are Razorback, Knockout, Blue Streak, Torpedo, and Taba. Collective we are known as the Geobreeders."

The man said, "I can't believe you just used my real name."

"There's no way I'm calling you Salaryman: that's just dumb. Besides, there's millions of Tabas in Japan. They have no way of knowing which one you are, or if it's your real name, if you hadn't told them just now."

"Of course they would have known it's my real name. What sort of masked person goes around using a first name?"

The girl in the gangster outfit said, "Why can't I just stick wit 'Crimson Shooting Star'?"

"Because it's too long. Torpedo is a term used to apply to hitmen from back in the era you regard so highly, so it suits you!"

"Okay." Torpedo leveled her Tommy gun at the group. "Now are youse guys gonna hand over the Tigra, or are we gonna have to get rough wit youse?"

The Avengers looked at one another. Tigra said, "Gangster girl mistaken. Tigra name, not noun."

Crossbow said, "I don't care if you call yourself Chesty McTits, I know—"

Tigra gave a delighted cheer and began rubbing herself suggestively against Captain Japan. "Hunky Captain see? Even super-villains can tell Tigra hot. We should go out on date."

Hawkeye snapped, "You're not hot, fur butt! You just dress like a slut in a bikini that you're nearly falling out of!"

"And Bucky already does that a lot of the time," Daredevil added.

"It ain't her fault. She's a victim of circumstance!" Captain Japan snapped.

Crossbow cleared her throat. "I don't know why you Avengers have thrown in with the Phantom Cats—"

Tigra interrupted again. "Is some confusion. Tigra not Phantom Cat. Tigra were-woman."

"I don't care!" Crossbow snapped. "You either let us use our tag system to cage the Tigra, or things will get violent."

"I vote for 'violent'," a tiny voice said as the Wasp, who, at the start of things had moved out of sight behind an overturned table and shrunk, had flown up next to Torpedo and blasted her in the face, knocking her unconscious before she could pull the trigger.

Wasp aimed at her next target, the 'Knockout' woman, and fired. However the woman parried the shot with one of the metal pounders on her hands, deflecting it away. With a backhand she swatted Wasp out of mid-air and to the ground. The diminutive Avenger bounced once before lying still.

That broke open the floodgates as a melee ensued.

Crossbow shouted out commands. "Since Thor's not around, Knockout takes the Captain. Taba, since there's no Hulk or Iron Rose, you help Blue Streak immobilize the Tigra so we can tag her. Hawkeye's mine."

"You mean you're mine!" Hawkeye began firing arrows at Crossbow, each shaft met with a bolt in midair, though the hero did the same to the bolts aimed at her.

"I'm a much better archer than you!" Crossbow taunted.

"You use a repeating crossbow. That barely qualifies as archery."

Tigra decided to take out her opponents before they got to her, though she was suffering from 'Daredevil Syndrome' when it came to villains. Some whiney guy and a person on roller skates? How lame could you get?

She barely dodged a pair of laser beams, aimed at her legs, from the mechanical devices at Blue Streak's wrists. Testament to the beams' power was that they cut through everything they touched, neatly slicing the objects as though they were butter.

"Stupid arrow girl say immobilize, not kill!" Tigra shouted, now a lot more worried than before.

"As though cutting off your limbs will do more than slow you down, you Phantom Cat." Blue Streak skated around for a better shot, trying to position herself so she that wouldn't slice any of her friends in half along with her foes.

"It do more than slow down!" Tigra assured her, trying to avoid her surprisingly swift opponent. Apparently, roller skates had a practical application after all.

Captain Japan went charging toward what was clearly the only hand-to-hand expert they had, the chick in the leotard. Judging from the way she moved, she knew what she was doing, and it took damn good reflexes to parry Wasp's shot and then bat her out of the air in two fluid motions. He could do it if he had to, of course. But she wasn't half bad.

Knockout seemed to focus on him as well, and charged him. Metal pounder met shield, nearly knocking it out of Captain Japan's hands.

"Hey!" Captain Japan threw a fist that Knockout parried. "You have super strength!"

"So?" Knockout released a kick, but Captain Japan ducked under it and came up with a backfist which connected with her the head.

"But you're using weapons. That's like cheating when you have super strength." She blocked his next attack.

"Thor uses a hammer." She brought her pounder down on the ground, nearly hitting him in the foot and successfully cracking the floor tile.

"But she needs it because she's the Goddess of Thunder." He leapt over her head in a somersault, landing behind her, then unleashed a kick that struck her in the back. "Her heroing without a hammer would be like me calling myself Captain Japan, Master of Fire, and not even being able to use a lighter."

Knockout landed a glancing blow into the Captain's gut, driving him back. "Fist pounders are directly related to strength. Since they augment my power, I don't think it should count against me." She unleashed a volley of fast punches at her foe, which he blocked with his shield, though he found himself being driven backward.

"Good point." He continued talking as he planned a counteroffensive.

As the fight progressed, Razorback continued sitting in the cab of the semi, watching idly. "Looks like we have a slight advantage," she muttered to herself while noting her cigarette was getting a bit low.

There was the sound of something landing on the roof, and then Daredevil poked his head from the top of the open window on the driver's side.

Sensing impending violence, Razorback shouted, "Wait, I'm just a driver. All I do is drive."

Daredevil said, "Then you're like 'the Transporter,', only with a stupid pig skull sitting on your head." He reached in to grab her.

"You don't want to do that," Razorback warned.

Daredevil ignored the warning and grabbed her by the front of her outfit. Suddenly electricity shot out of the costume, knocking him unconscious.

"Told you so." Phantom Cats listened to her about as well as super-heroes, which was why she needed a little something to keep them from getting frisky with her. Razorback left Daredevil's motionless form on top of her vehicle while going back to the fight.

Hawkeye was shouting out as many epithets as Crossbow. So far the pair had either shot each others projectiles out of midair or evaded the ones fired at them. But sooner or later the girl would flinch, and then Hawkeye would get one past her and victory would be hers. She'd prove who the best archer was.

Hawkeye reached back into her quiver for another arrow, then, to her horror, discovered there were no feathered shafts left.

"Ha!" Crossbow shouted, cocking back on her weapon, only to have it remain empty. "Crap! I knew I should have loaded the first one manually after loading the ammo drum." She pouted, looking pissed, then raised her weapon high above her head and shouted as she charged.

Hawkeye could barely believe it, but then answered in kind, bringing her weapon back and charging forward as well.

The two swung at the same time, crossbow and bow meeting skull, knocking each other senseless to the ground.

Tigra was getting very annoyed, and concerned, as the lasers came close enough to singe her fur. Blue Streak's skates kept the were-woman from closing the distance to her foe, and those lasers seemed inexhaustible. The same could not be said for the Avenger. Sooner or later she might get hit and end up a lot more than immobilized. Regenerating from a bullet wound was one thing, but she didn't want to try for a whole limb. Or even four of them.

Tigra was barely avoiding another pair of crisscrossing beams when a bolt with a tag dangling from it went past her face, nearly hitting her. It impaled itself in golfing display several feet away. There was a burst of light from the tag, forming a sphere about ten feet in diameter. When the light disappeared, so had everything in the sphere, including some of the flooring. It was like it had ceased to exist.

Taba tried smiling in a disarming manner.

Tigra smiled a bit more viciously.

The Avenger leapt between two more laser beams and landed next to the man, who was trying to reload his crossbow in a more traditional manner than his compatriot, but fumbling the bolt. Seeing the looming woman before him, he sighed. Sadly, he had been in the position of Phantom Cats standing over his helpless form so often, it no longer scared him.

He tried running away, but Tigra snared him be the back of the neck, almost like a mother cat would a kitten. One very angry with her kitten.

"Y… you put him down," Blue Streak shouted. "If you hurt one hair on Taba's head, I'll cut you into so many pieces, you'll never pull yourself together."

"Okay. Tigra give boy back." And she threw him at the skater.

Blue Streak's first instinct was to dodge, she had enough time, but then she realized that at the velocity Taba had been thrown, he might get hurt by an impact against something hard.

"I have you!" Blue Streak shouted, trying to catch him. For all her hopes, she was so slight all she did was slightly cushion his fall as the two slammed into each other, getting knocked into unconsciousness.

The fight between Captain Japan and Knockout wore on both foes, and each was gasping for air, though neither had landed a telling blow. Despite the intensity of the duel, the two carried on a conversation the entire time.

Captain Japan said, "You know, you almost sound like one of the good guys."

"I am." Knockout almost landed a punch on his face, her pounder caressing his nose with just the barest of misses. "You don't seem too bad either, just misguided. Do you know your teammate's a Phantom Cat?"

"You got it wrong." He noted she had trouble parrying his latest kick, but managed to do so. She was definitely wearing down, but so was he, super soldier serum or no. "She's no ghost."

"You don't have to be a ghost to be a Phantom Cat. Has she ever walked through solid objects or controlled electronics?" Another blow was absorbed by the shield.

"Nope. Just strong, fast, and very touchie-feelie," he bemoaned slightly. "She's no phantom cat thing."

"But we are!" a voice shouted as twin beams of energy slammed into both opponents, knocking them out.

Tigra, the only member conscious and not cowering behind a dashboard, looked around to find herself surrounded by about thirty cat people. The speaker of the group was a tan colored male that was a good bit larger and more muscular than his comrades. Around his forearms and wrists were metal gauntlets composed of circuitry. Yellow smoke rose from them.

Cougar smiled at her. "Welcome, oh great Tigra. We have reunited at last. And just as the prophecies have preordained, by day's end we will exterminate humanity and perform the ritual for the crossing."

Tigra laughed nervously. This did not sound… good.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

End chapter.

Writer's notes: Only one more chapter to go and Act 3 will be over. Then we really get things rolling in Act 4 with the Hate Monger and the Peacemaker. BTW, the unnamed guy in the black suit was the Japanese equivalent of 'Snake' Marston, a guy who had the ability of contortionism. Which wasn't a super power at all. Or even much of an ability. Even hanging out with the Enforcers couldn't make him into a winner, and don't get started on his role in the Satan Squad.


	34. Act III Animal Farm chap 9

Avenging

Act III

The Animal Farm

Chapter 9

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Seated at her receptionist's desk, Akane Tendou smiled dreamily as the radio played a sad love song in the background. It was unfortunate she couldn't have attended the autograph session with the other Avengers, but she did have her job, and any chance to be with Dr. Tofu was always time well spent. True, their roles were solely his being a doctor with the patients and she only his faithful nurse/receptionist, but it still counted as time together in her book.

A pity things hadn't exactly been moving forward on the Tofu front, but neither had Akane lost any ground. She had confidence now that someday something fateful would happen that would enable him to see her for the wonderful person she was. Then they would begin dating and have a courtship that would be like out of some romance novel which would end in marriage.

As her fantasy with Tofu continued, she also considered the hunky and heroic Captain Japan as well. Truly, he was a magnificent specimen for a mortal, and his character and perseverance were that of a true warrior. No doubt, under his mask was an equally heroic countenance. And his stamina was considerable from having seen him in action. He would make for a desirable partner as well.

But who to choose? Bah, why not take both? After all, she was a true woman who had been forced to keep her desires in check for far too long. Come to think of it, there was Ranma, too, who was nearly as hunky as the Captain and a nice sort, not at all like the boys from her school. And a relationship with him would answer the need for family honor. Three were not too much. In fact, that was probably the bare minimum necessary to sate her healthy appetite. The three of them would surely be entertaining in bed—

"Akane, why are you drooling?"

The question snapped Akane back to the world of the living. It was Dr. Tofu, who was seeing his last patient out. Akane felt her face redden as she recalled the totally perverted thoughts she had been having. Three guys? And only one of them Dr. Tofu? What had she been thinking? Actually, she remembered what she had been thinking, which was what made it so bad.

"Ah, it was…."Akane tried frantically to come up with some rational explanation. Perhaps accidentally giving herself an overdose of Novocain, that had deadened her jaw and she didn't know she was drooling?

Akane was saved from coming up with some lame excuse when the music stopped and an announcer's voice declared, "This breaking news. The super hero group that has come under fire recently, the Avengers, was attacked during an autograph session at a local store. Reports are that they lost to a group of unknown canine super villains. Unconfirmed sources tell us that a number of the heroes were injured, while one of the Avengers was taken hostage as the super villains fled the scene."

Both Tofu and Akane stared in horror at the announcement. Tofu was the first to collect himself. "Ka… I should go help the injured. Could you close up here?" He was already collecting medical supplies as he asked.

Akane breathed a secret sigh of relief as she was saved from coming up with a lame excuse for the second time in a minute. Dr. Tofu's departure meant she could transform into Thor. The only question was where to go? There was little she could do for the injured, and if the abducted one was Captain Japan, well it was a chance for her to impress the hunky hero. Maybe in gratitude he would kiss her the way Hawkeye had when they were under the Mandarin's fortress. The archer was quite the kisser, though Akane's preferences were toward the beefier Captain. Yes, she would fly out and rescue her comrade from the clutches of the foul beasts.

After all, kicking ass was what a warrior was born to do.

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

The Avengers' priority signal beeped. Kodachi Kunou cursed at the interruption. After two near-fanatical weeks of theorizing and experimentation, she had determined that a refractory coating would be the best means of preventing her armor from being controlled by any outside signals, like Bullseye had done. But even with the method decided, Kodachi still had to test the composition, thickness, and a host of other variables to maximize the protective properties. That took time, which was why she had skipped out on the autograph session. Distractions she did not need. She swore if this 'priority' was from the Hulk again because he was hungry and couldn't locate the kitchen, she'd make fuchsia the 'official' color of the Avengers and force him to wear pants in that shade.

Her attitude changed when she saw it was an automatically generated signal by her 'heads up' program. It monitored all commercial information systems, like television, radio, and the internet, and red-flagged any that might have a significant impact on the Avengers.

Punching up the alert, it informed her of the attack, and more importantly, that a member of her team had been abducted. What if it had been her beloved Captain Japan that had been captured? If she moved fast, she could swoop down and rescue him single-handedly. It would be the perfect segue to invite him out to dinner at the most expensive restaurant in Japan. But how would she eat through the slit in her helmet? Maybe it was time to inform the Captain of her true identity. It would be a sign of trust. And then he could reveal his identity to her. It would be 'their little secret'. Oh, it was a wonderful plan.

"Don't worry, Captain-sama, I am coming to save you. Ohhohohohohoho!"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The vehicle was a military transport truck with the canvas back torn away, allowing anyone to see what was happening in the bed, though few would believe their eyes. Nearly two dozen humanoid felines crowded in the rear of the vehicle, a half dozen of them trying their best to hold down one of their number, a female with purple fur.

The girl writhed with the best of her abilities, snarling, "Let Tigra go!" She got a solid kick to the face of one of the cats, knocking him far enough away he had to grab onto the side of the vehicle to keep from falling. However, another was quick to take his place on her limb.

One of the cats, a male with black fur and a pair of white circles around his eyes, crawled over to the cab and looked in. "Cougar, sir, The Tigra is continuing to fight us."

The brown-furred male, much larger than the others, said, "She's confused for some reason, you idiot! It's why she didn't come to us in the first place. Now hold on to her, but don't harm one follicle of fur, or I'll gut you myself."

With her enhanced hearing, Tigra stopped fighting for a second. "No harm?" A wicked smile spread across her face, nearly feral in nature.

Having gone limp, her captors loosened their holds ever so slightly. Their mistake as Tigra became active again, ripping across the face of one of the Phantom Cats, her claws biting deeply. However, instead of blood, a glow came from the tear, which then healed itself before her eyes.

The one that had been scratched said, "Hey, I healed from her claws."

"The Tigra's powers differ from ours," Cougar explained.

"You got that right. She's way stronger than any of us, except for the Balkatar," a third Phantom Cat added in a meaningful way to the leader of their race. The sycophant took a fist to her face, courtesy of Tigra, for the trouble.

"We're almost there," Cougar said sympathetically to the girl, then turned to the driver. "Toonces, drive faster." He didn't wait for the vehicle to speed up before turning to another Phantom Cat not currently engaged with wresting Tigra to the ground. "Skit, go ahead and tell the others at the launch base to initiate the plan. I want that shuttle fired up and ready to go when we arrive."

Skit nodded, pulling out a cell phone and dialing a number. A second later he turned into light as he put one hand into the digital screen on the phone, disappearing from sight.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

There really could be a silver lining in a cloud, Ryouga Hibiki decided. His original intention had been to attend the autograph session with the rest of the Avengers. True, he wasn't in his Hulk form, but he had a way around it: he had poked two eyeholes in one of his bandannas so he could tie it around his face. No one would recognize him for sure. It was the perfect disguise.

But Ryouga ended up getting lost instead. However, this was not cause for depression as was usually the case. He had ended up at a launch base where they were going to shuttle a satellite into orbit. Ryouga had always been fascinated by outer space. Many hours of his youth had been taken up pretending he was an astronaut-- and not getting lost in space, (although maybe there was an idea for a TV series, or even a movie, behind that one). So as far as Ryouga was concerned randomly walking into a situation where he could watch a real live space launch was a dream come true.

As he stood next to the chain fence surrounding the base, he was vaguely aware of an increasingly loud rumble coming from behind him. He turned and saw a truck with a cat person behind the wheel boring down on him.

Ryouga only had enough time to yell, "Ahhhh!" and have his blood pressure shoot through the roof before the truck ran him over.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Cougar saw the shuttle on the launch pad moving into position for the lift off. Yes! Skit and the others had seized control of the key areas of the base necessary to hijack the shuttle, though it wasn't much of a hijacking since its destination remained the same: only its cargo would be different, and that was primarily in the form of passengers. That was all that was necessary since they had initiated this plan months ago. Everything was in place. It was a just a question of timing now.

Next to him, Toonces suddenly screeched at the top of his lungs.

"What the hell's wrong? Why are you screaming like a little kitten?"

Fur standing on end, Toonces snapped, "You'd scream like that too if an angry Hulk was in your review mirror!"

Cougar turned and saw indeed it was the Hulk running toward their vehicle. Worse, he was quickly catching up. Well, their luck had been exceptional lately, what with the appearance of the Tigra, killing Black Cat, and having the Avengers and the thrice damned Geobreeders take each other out while snatching the Tigra out from under their collective unconscious noses. It didn't get any more convenient than that.

Cougar barked out, "Tai, Mackie, Greyeye, Shi, and Raven, hold the Tigra down. The rest of you keep the Hulk from getting to the shuttle!"

Tigra heard that. Shuttle? That couldn't be good. She struggled harder, but while she was indeed stronger than any single Phantom Cat she wasn't stronger than five. And no matter how or where she scratched, they kept on healing.

She hated regenerators. At least ones better at it than her.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

The Hulk had nearly caught up to the truck when over a dozen Phantom Cats sprang out from the back and leapt upon him. The jade goliath found himself buried under a fur pile that wouldn't have felt all that bad had the Phantom Cats not been trying to claw him to shreds.

"Cat people attack Hulk! Bad kitties! Bad!" The Hulk flexed his muscles, hurling the Phantom Cats through the air until they were stopped by a variety of obstructions, such as walls, vehicles, the ground, and a host of other very solid objects.

One of the trucks was a maintenance vehicle with a number of pipes poking out the back. A Phantom Cat flew almost unerringly toward it and ended up impaled squarely through the chest by one of the protruding pipes.

The Hulk grimaced. "Hulk did not mean to kill bad cat person. Hulk, huh?" The Avenger watched as the Phantom Cat grabbed the bar sticking out of his chest and pulled himself forward until he was at the end, then fell forward and off the pipe. As he rose to his feet, the glowing spot where the hole had been disappeared. Other cats who had injuries, including scrapes, cuts, or even broken bones, healed in similar fashion.

The Hulk reconsidered things. "Hulk thinks something is strange. These are not normal cat people."

The Phantom Cats hurled themselves at him again.

Xxxxxxxxx

Flying above, Iron Rose saw the Hulk being swarmed by the Phantom Cats. Great, she had hoped for Captain Japan and instead ended up with the child-like brute. Oh well, at least it hadn't been that furry harridan, Tigra. She would have turned around and gone back home if that one had been the kidnap victim. Although she did wonder how a bunch of giant hairballs had managed to capture the muscle-bound oaf. Perhaps he had been in his easier to manage human form.

As Iron rose hovered overhead, trying to figure out the best way to assist her teammate (assuming he required assistance), she noticed one of the Phantom Cats staring right at her. It was very creepy, especially with his inhuman eyes. Maybe she'd hit him with a repulsor blast first.

Then he suddenly dissolved into a beam of energy which shot up at her armor. There was a flash of light as it struck her, yet she felt no impact, nor did her armor seem scorched of burnt.

And then her systems began refusing her commands.

"Not again!" Kodachi tried everything she could to regain control of the armor's systems, but it was useless. Nothing responded, not even her inbuilt am/fm radio. It was like her armor had become sentient and gone on strike. Damn, damn, damn! It wasn't fair! Another three or four days and this wouldn't have been possible.

After several seconds, the armor began moving on its own. It was worse than with Bullseye. Then the armor had simply gone dead, now it was like she was a puppet.

"Get out!" Kodachi screamed as her armor flew down toward… oh no.

The Hulk saw only a black and gray blur as he was dive bombed by his teammate. Unlike the Phantom Cats, being hit by Iron Rose hurt a lot. He went flying nearly as far as the felines he had swatted away moments before.

The Hulk rose to his feet. "Why did Tin Can Girl—" The rest of the interrogative was cut off by a full force repulsor beam to the face that once again knocked the Hulk on his big green behind.

"It's not my fault!" Iron Rose shouted as a now very angry Hulk rose to his feet. "One of these damned felines got inside my armor and is controlling it!"

"Hulk thinks this is trick. Hulk thinks you are really robot making believe it's Tin Can Girl. Hulk will smash to prove it!" And with that he leapt into the air.

Luckily for Iron Rose, the Phantom Cat inhabiting her armor was nearly as adept with it as her, and evaded the charge. Had the Hulk landed squarely, she doubted if even her armor could withstand his assault. Instead, the armor circled around in midair, keeping distance between it and the emerald goliath as the repulsors charged up again in anticipation of a second shot.

This was turning into a really terrible day.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Thor flew through the air toward the truck that was now stationed near the shuttle that was preparing for launch. Memories of nearly being flashfried by the Mandarin's own missile launch made her wince. Still, it was obvious these felines were up to no good (cat people never were, as evidenced by Tigra's sluttish demeanor). Whether they were saboteurs or hijackers, it made little difference to the Goddess of Thunder. There was combat to be had, and the furry tramp would owe Thor one for pulling her enlarged bottom out of the fire.

One of the Phantom Cats spotted Thor as she landed before the group emerging from the vehicle. "Incoming!"

A cat larger than the others, undoubtedly the leader, pulled in front of the group. "Take the Tigra on board. I shall deal with this one."

While on one level allowing them to shoot Tigra into deep space was satisfying, she deserved a better fate, such as a full body shave. Besides, allowing one's comrades to be abducted to far-off lands under one's nose looked bad.

Thor held up her hammer in warning. "Base villains. Unhand the furry wench and yield yourselves to the proper authorities, lest thou suffer the wrath of Thor!"

Cougar launched himself at her. Cats did have a tendency to pounce on prey, Thor noted. It mattered little. She would strike him from the skies before he had a chance to lay a single claw upon her.

Thor threw Mjolnir right at Cougar. The hammer was on target as it headed for the feline's chest. He made no move to evade the weapon, rather drawing both arms back, as though he would be the one unleashing the blow. Truly, he was an arrogant creature.

And then the hammer sailed through his chest, as though he were nothing more than a ghost.

Thor was so shocked that she left herself wide open as he brought his fists forward. She saw his entire forearms were sheathed in a yellow nimbus of crackling energy, and that some sort of mechanical bracers with a number of open wires was producing it. Acrid smoke poured from them and sparks danced along the edges.

And then both fists smashed into Thor's face, releasing an explosion of energy that could be felt hundreds of meters away. There was enough force to render even the goddess unconscious.

Finally succeeding in immobilizing Tigra with several lengths of thick cable, the Phantom Cats paused as their leader disappeared in the ensuing explosion. They were tense until the light died and Cougar emerged, melted slags of metal the only sign of the Null Bands that he had been wearing. Fur and skin had been scorched from his body deep enough that bone was visible in some places on his forearms. Like all wounds inflicted by conventional means upon their race, Cougar's healed before everyone's eyes.

He said, "Let's get on this shuttle. We have a planet to scourge."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Iron Rose was becoming frantic. Losing control was so horrible, she would almost prefer the Hulk catch her and peel the armor from her body. Maybe she'd be dead, but at least she wouldn't be a marionette dancing on the end of some over-intelligent animal's strings.

The Hulk leapt up once more and nearly caught her this time. His leaps were becoming faster, almost too fast to be evaded. He must be really getting angry if his strength was increasing so much her jets were slower than his jumps.

The searchlight concealed in her chest flashed out, blinding the Hulk momentarily. Readings indicated the Cat was shunting one hundred percent of the power into her repulsors. He was going for an all or nothing shot. That much power, and even the Hulk might be knocked out. Or worse. Her repulsors were powerful, and even she didn't know what kind of damage such a blast would do to her simple minded teammate.

Suddenly, there was a flash of light from the ground and sparks danced along the entirety of her armor. There was an inhuman cry, like some soul was being sent to hell via a paper shredder, that came from the metal surrounding her itself.

Then Kodachi suddenly found herself in complete control of the armor again.

"Thank goodn—"

The rest of the sentiment was lost as the Hulk finally connected on one of his leaps. His fist struck Iron Rose squarely in the body, sending her flying nearly a mile away.

The Hulk held his hand to his brow, keeping out the sun, as he watched her form dwindle out of sight, lost among the trees of a nearby forest. "Ha! Hulk has proven he is strongest one again. Maybe Tin Can Girl will thank Hulk for beating up robot impersonating her. Maybe she will give Hulk medal. Or beans."

Patting his belly, his hunger was momentarily forgotten as a loud roar filled the air. The Hulk looked over to see a column of light come from the bottom of several large rockets as the launch took place.

"Ooooo! Pretty. Hulk likes space shots." He watched the craft slowly lift into the blue sky. Maybe he would become astronaut instead of Avenger. He bet he was strong enough he could just throw the craft into space, and they wouldn't need big rockets anymore.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The sounds of rockets propelling tons of metal in the air roused Thor from the depths of unconsciousness. She looked up to see the shuttle and its boosters lift off from the ground, slowly but surely going into the air. She was distant enough that the flames didn't harm her, though the wind would have blown any mere mortal away.

"I say thee nay!" Thor spun Mjolnir around until it had sufficient force for her to take flight. Releasing it from the spin, she hurled it in the air, holding on to the pommel. She vowed to grab onto the vessel and wait until it got into orbit, then board it and force it earthward. She could withstand vacuum for an extended period of time, as proven when she and Iron Rose destroyed the Mandarin's satellite. Now that she knew the Phantom Cats could become immaterial, she would be prepared for them. They could be dispatched quite easily.

Thor was catching up to the shuttle, no more than fifty meters away from its gunmetal gray surface, when a pair of ground-to-air rockets slammed into her from behind, knocking her from the sky and causing her to crash to the ground below. Thor picked herself up, angrier than she had been in some time in being prevented not once, but twice, from stopping her foes. A quick look showed the shuttle had built up too much speed: she would never catch up to it.

Turning to confront the dishonorable fool that would strike her from behind, Thor found herself surrounded by a number of people in some sort of military garb. Rather than the JSDF insignia on their uniforms, they had a symbol with the acronym 'Hound'.

A woman who carried herself as though she were in charge of the outfit gave a sharp, "Halt, Thor. You're under arrest for attempting to interfere with a government space launch."

Thor felt her temper fray. "Fools. Where were thou when the cat people took over the shuttle?"

A voice from behind the group said, "That's already been taken to account."

Everyone stopped pointing their weapons at Thor and stood at attention. A small, non-descript man in a business suit and a smile that reminded her far too much of her half-brother said, "Sorry about that. I'm afraid you've stumbled upon a secret government operation. Ordinarily I wouldn't tell a civilian, but you're not exactly an ordinary citizen, and I've had to use this year's entire budget to fund the operation. I'd just as soon not have you destroy all my equipment since I'd never hear the end of it from the accountants. And then there's all of my people whose insurance plans you'd end up activating. It would be a bureaucratic nightmare. So why don't we go somewhere and, once I get the okay, I can inform you of everything that happened?"

"One of mine comrades was aboard that craft," Thor pointed out.

Irie considered that. "I understand she came out of nowhere and joined your team under suspicious conditions."

"Aye, she did."

"Perhaps I ought to brief you on exactly what Phantom Cats are, and why your comrade was likely a spy planted in your midst. Did she ever mention getting it on with someone named Balkatar?"

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Yuri Topolov, aka Mr. Comrade, aka the Gargoyle, looked in horror as his hijacked shuttle headed up into space and out of sight.

"No! How can this be? I was right on the verge of uniting mankind through intercommunication and unity of thought," he gasped.

"I'm afraid you've been betrayed, my love."

The Gargoyle turned around at the sound of Felicity's voice, only it was no longer the girl he loved. Instead it was yet another of those cats that had taken over the base and shuttle.

With his intelligence, he knew exactly what had happened, but he had to say it aloud to believe it. "You're… you're one of them?"

Felicity nodded. "Yes, I was assigned to seduce and encourage you to embark on this plan. You see, the electromagnetic wave projectors you have on all of your satellites in combination with the receivers you've been giving away to everyone to 'help with global communication', the ones with the miniature pulse generators inside them, can be used to do something other than influence people into passivity so they won't go around killing one another."

"You knew about that?" he gasped.

"Oh yes. Phantom Cat abilities are very adept at raiding computer files," Felicity explained. "Rather than sending out subtle waves to influence people over a prolonged period of time, we're going to tailor an EM burst that will shut down human brains instead. Thanks to you, we can blanket the entire earth with it. We won't even need the receivers on earth since we're going for one overpowering assault, rather than prolonged manipulation like you planned."

"You'll kill everyone," he said, staring at her in horror.

Felicity appeared sad. "Yes, we need the room. Our dimension is overpopulated, and we need a new one to move into. This is the perfect environment for us. However, your planet could not sustain both our races: we are too numerous. It's either you or us, and we choose us." She gave a sigh. "My apologies for leading you on. I genuinely like you. Were it possible, I would find some way to leave you alive, but it isn't. So instead, I'll give you a choice: you can wait until the pulse blankets the earth and shuts down your brain, or I can kill you now so you won't have to witness the end. I promise you it will be quick and painless. You won't even know what happened." She flexed her claws meaningfully.

Before the Gargoyle could answer the door to his room was kicked in. Standing in the entryway was a tall masked girl with long brown hair, dressed in a sailor fuku with green edging and lightning bolts all over her boots, uniform, and gloves.

Before the Phantom Cat could move, a bolt of electricity shot from her hand, striking Felicity in the side. The cat girl convulsed, let out a soul searing scream, then dissipated, as though she truly had been nothing more than a phantom that appeared like a cat rather than a cat that acted like a phantom.

The intruder said, "I see the information from Hound about that particular electrical wavelength being the one to destroy Phantom Cats was accurate."

The Gargoyle stared at the girl. "I recognize you. You're the Living Lightning."

The Living Lightning stared at him impassively. "My mistress sent me to save you from certain termination. She appreciates your genius and wishes to hire you, in light of the fact that once the truth of your 'communication system' comes to light, you will be imprisoned, if not executed. She offers a lucrative salary as well as benefits package."

Panicked, the Gargoyle said, "You don't realize what's going on. The Phantom Cats are going to kill humanity."

The Living Lightning shook her head. "Rest assured, steps have already been taken to prevent that. Were they not, I would have been personally sent to destroy the satellite. Now, it is recommended you take my mistress up on her offer." She raised a glowing hand and aimed it at him.

Things were happening too fast for even his increased intellect to fully comprehend. Still, even he could see the only possible safe course for his actions. "I agree."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Let me out!" Tigra hissed as she banged against the walls of the glass tube she had unceremoniously been stuffed in. Whatever the giant tube was made of was damn thick to resist her super strength. Of course, even if she escaped, she had nowhere to go.

Once the shuttle had taken off, she had stopped resisting. If she had broken free she had nowhere to go. It wasn't like she could survive reentry like Iron Rose. She listened calmly, waiting for some opportunity to escape as they went into orbit and eventually rendezvoused with the space station that served as the hub for all of Mr. Comrade's global communications. Tigra had been offloaded and shoved into one of these tubes. At the moment, she was left to do nothing more than simmer in her own juices while the cats fooled around with the equipment, setting it up for something which was far beyond her technical expertise.

After several minutes of poring over a console, Cougar gave a triumphant shout, "At last! Everything checks out! Humanity will be exterminated in the time it takes the electromagnetic charge to build up."

"Aiyah! What mangy hairball mean?" Tigra asked.

"No need to worry your pretty head about useless details," Cougar said in a soothing tone that only irked Tigra even more. "Besides, I couldn't hope to explain it to you in less than a minute, and I'm not delaying the countdown for a single second."

"Oooh, pretty please," Tigra cooed, putting her most noticeable attributes 'up against the glass'.

Cougar looked at her hungrily. "Don't worry. Once I've confirmed the extermination of humanity, we can begin the ritual of the Crossing."

"What ritual?" Tigra asked warily.

"The mating ritual between the Balkatar, which is myself, and the Tigra, which is you. Our union will open up a dimensional gateway between this dimension and ours, which will enable the pride to come to a rich, fertile, and humanless planet."

The Avenger paled. "Tigra not Phantom Cat! Tigra were-woman!"

Cougar looked at her curiously. "You keep saying that word. I don't think it means what you think it means."

Tigra pounded her head against the clear wall.

Toonces said, "The charge is built up, sir. Would you like to do the honors?"

"You'd better believe it!" Cougar practically danced to the button to ignite the pulse. He was right next to it as he said, "As Balkatar, I will—" He shook his head furiously. "Blast, I almost made a speech. Sorry about that. I'll kill humanity, then make a victory speech. Or maybe it'll be a congratulatory speech. We'll figure it out later."

Cougar touched the button, and then the room was filled with light.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"And so it ends." The Phantom Cat called Raven shifted her body to her 'true form', that of the ebon-skinned, shape-shifting mutant the world knew as Mystique. The cries of the disintegrating Phantom Cats on board the satellite had been as hideous as anything she had heard, and she had heard many hideous things in her long life. She was responsible for many of them, including this one.

She had to admit, Irie's plot had been a good one, and it was difficult to impress Raven Darkholme. Altering the Phantom Cats' plan for the global extermination of humanity into one to exterminate the Phantom Cats had been a stroke of genius. And all it had taken was Mystique infiltrating the race and aligning herself with the most powerful side. Then she waited until the last moment to place a chip which switched the electromagnetic wavelength from one that killed humans to one that eradicated Phantom Cats. How ironic that the race had ended up pulling the trigger on themselves. Though it was a good thing she had aligned herself with Cougar instead of Black Cat. From what she had gathered, he had been a shrewd one, and there was a realistic possibility he would have sniffed out her plan, or taken precautions that the system couldn't be turned against him in this manner. But Cougar had been far too bloodthirsty and visceral. The idea that someone could outsmart him had never entered his mind. He was sneaky in combat, to be certain, but it was an animal's instinct rather than a Machiavellian train of thought.

Like Mystique's.

Oh yes. Already the plan had formed in her mind. Given the persecutions of mutants in so many corners of the world, she had no compunction against the genocide of humans. In fact, she would rather enjoy it. Unfortunately the Phantom Cats' biases saw no difference between homo sapiens and homo superior, but Mystique most certainly did. And the system that had just sent a pulse that had eliminated every Phantom Cat worldwide could theoretically be adjusted to do the same to ordinary humans. Magneto would certainly be interested in the potential. Mystique would even volunteer the information for nothing in the hopes it was successful.

It would prove Destiny and her mutant precognitive abilities wrong. Mystique still couldn't believe her old friend had switched to Xavier's side, insisting mutants' best chance for survival would be coexistence with humans, and that with some modifications, Xavier was their best shot. Mystique knew better, had lived too long with humanity. They would never accept them due to mutants' inherent superiority. One side or the other must fall. Not all that different from the Phantom Cats perspective, really.

Mystique inserted several disks to copy the station's files and waited. As she did so, she tuned around….

…And saw a very angry Tigra staring daggers at her through her tube.

"What the hell?" Mystique had made certain the interior projector she had slaved to the panel bathed the entire room with the pulse and eradicated all the Phantom Cats. The Tigra should have been killed as well.

"How did you survive?"

"Tigra not Phantom Cat!" she raged.

"You know, I believe you," Mystique said. "I also believe you know too much, bimbo that you are. I…." The mutant stopped as Tigra undid the cat-shaped clasp at the front of her uniform… hell, it was a bikini, allowing her breasts to spill free.

Mystique was only slightly surprised. The attractive often used sex to bargain for their life. She had used it on more than one tight occasion. "Sorry, while I have used male guises and slept with women, I'm not into furries, so it's useless…."

Again, the girl was doing something very curious as she pulled something off the back of the ornament and pressed the clasp against the glass wall. It stuck. Some sort of adhesive. Mystique watched as the Avenger pulled the belt of teeth from her waist. Inserting one tooth at the end of the belt into the cat face of the clasp, she then removed another tooth from the middle while holding the far end. She brought the tooth in her left hand back, then forward to the one in her right in a striking motion.

Instinctively, Mystique leapt back just as the clasp exploded. The shaped charge sent the glass away from the interior of the tube. Only a handful of small slivers of glass sliced into her body.

As Mystique rose to her feet, Tigra stepped out of the shattered tube, looking exceptionally angry.

Mystique activated the 'claws' from the glove of her outfit. They were a gift from Irie, made of synthetic Phantom Cat nails and guaranteed to do damage to them just like a real Phantom Cat claw would. She held them before her face. "You might not know who I am, so let me inform you. My name is Mystique. I am one of the world's foremost assassins."

The cat girl stopped and gave a playful smile. "Actually, Tigra have a secret she share with you." And with that her smile changed in some indescribable manner. It went from warm and pleasing to something else.

The same sort of smile Mystique saw when she looked in a mirror.

"So am I." Tigra said in flawless Japanese as she held up her own claws in identical fashion to Mystique's. "Small world, isn't it?"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"What nice weather we're having," Irie said to the dozen members of Hound that surrounded him in the middle of the open field. They were the best of the best, with Narusawa in charge of the group. A good girl, that one. A pity she couldn't duplicate herself the way that Jamie Madrox character could. At least the feelers Irie had sent to Madrox indicated he might be lured away from Gyrich for the right price.

But things were up in the air now. From all appearances, Operation Deep Freeze had gone off without a hitch. Every single Phantom Cat they knew of, including the ones that had been captured for observation, had disintegrated before their eyes. The planned genocide of humanity had been swapped out for the Phantom Cats, and the felines only had themselves to blame. Not that Irie really cared about whow\ engineered what. He never understood that whole 'blood on one's hands concept' other than in a purely intellectual capacity.

In any event, with the apparent success of his organization's stated goal he would soon find himself unemployed. Only one loose end to tie up, and according to the transponder signal, it was rapidly approaching.

"Ah, there it comes." Irie stared up in the sky as the escape pod from the space station went from a small red glow to a big one, then slowed down as breaking jets ignited, decelerating the pod's decent until it went in for a soft landing in the middle of the field no more than a hundred meters away. He had to admit, Mr. Comrade, well, probably better to go with his original name, the Gargoyle, was a true genius. A pity the man had disappeared. Irie would have loved to recruit him for his own operations, But the diminutive mastermind had disappeared right after the shuttle debacle. No doubt he would turn up at some point. Maybe even alive.

"Let's go." The group approached the fallen pod, weapons at the ready. All except Irie, who appeared for all the world like he was going on a casual stroll through the countryside.

He waited a short distance away, letting his troopers take their place in front of the hatch. There was a hiss of escaping air and it slowly lifted upward.

Irie said, "Welcome back to Earth, Raven. I will have to ask for those disks you have no doubt copied from, well now. This is an interesting turn of events."

Tigra emerged from the pod, covered in a healthy amount of blood. While there were missing streaks of fur from several parts of her body, and one patch missing near her abdomen, there were no open wounds upon her. Still, she looked very much the worse for wear.

Wearily, she walked toward Irie, all of the Hound troopers aiming their weapons at her. Narusawa interjected herself between Irie and the cat girl.

One of the men shouted, "It's a Phantom—"

"If Tigra hear someone say she Phantom Cat one more time, that person find out what it mean to 'bleed out'!" she snarled.

Irie said, "Now, now, no need for bloodshed." He looked Tigra over. "Further bloodshed. I take it Raven will not be joining us?"

"Very tragic accident. Poor girl fall on own fake claws. Several times. Too, too clumsy."

"I see." Irie put a hand into his pocket, which held a small transmitter with a button on it. He pushed the button. When the cat girl's claws didn't detonate and blow her hands off, he assumed it was not Mystique in disguise. True, sabotaging her equipment was not a nice thing to do, but neither was her likely betrayal. And neither of them would have described themselves as 'nice' to anyone.

"We really must be certain you're not a Phantom Cat," Irie pointed out. "Perhaps you would submit to an examination?"

"No." If ice could speak, it would sound almost as cold as that.

"What if I were to insist?"

Tigra shrugged. "History full of people who make bad decisions. Look how many try to invade Russia in winter."

Oh, how intriguing. She wasn't half the airhead she appeared to be. Also Mystique had never possessed that sort of sense of humor. "How about a show of trust? Completely on my part, since you obviously have no trust in me."

"What?"

"I have a special gun." He pulled it out, unworried about her reaction. She already had a dozen guns aimed at her, after all. "This only works on Phantom Cats. I can shoot you with it, and if it doesn't dissolve your form in a very painful, non-messy manner, we'll know you're not one."

Tigra held out an open hand. "Good idea. In exchange, Little Man put throat in here. Claws special. Only hurt lying mens."

"Very well." The members of Hound were aghast as Irie did as she suggested, placing his throat in her open grip. Even Tigra was astonished at the casual manner he had in putting his life literally in her hand.

"I'll aim for your foot," he assured her.

She watched carefully for a trick. Irie triggered the gun, a lance of electricity shooting out. All it did was make Tigra's foot tickle. Once he holstered his gun, she released his throat.

"It's safe, gentlemen. Tigra is indeed a were-woman, whatever that is. In any case, we can be assured she is not a Phantom Cat. One last concession, however, and it has nothing to do with your feline status. I would ask that we be allowed to search your person to make certain you didn't bring any contraband with you."

She spun around, showing her outfit consisted only of her bikini. "Where Tigra put contraband?"

"Oh, you'd be amazed how inventive some people are with their orifices."

Some of the male soldiers volunteered to perform a strip search. They retracted their offer when Tigra turned her gaze to them and their interest literally withered.

"I think Narusawa is up to the task," Irie suggested. When Tigra saw it was a woman, she agreed to a private one in the shuttle, though she did grimace as Narusawa put on a rubber glove.

A few minutes later, both women emerged from the pod, Tigra looking more pissed than ever.

"Sorry. Lubricant isn't part of a standard Hound field kit," Narusawa said apologetically.

Irie appeared delighted. "Now that we've confirmed your identity and lack of contraband, and I'm not foolish enough to suggest we take up any more of your time in a debriefing."

Tigra's look made everyone but the inscrutable Irie tighten their grips on their guns.

"I'll accept your word that you won't tell anyone about the events that happened today. Besides, who would believe a story about a race of Phantom Cats? It's not like there's any proof, now is there? Purely urban legend, like the rabid albino alligators that supposedly live in sewers. Only children take nonsense like that seriously."

"Is good point," Tigra acknowledged. "What Tigra tell Avengers about escaping non-existent Phantom Cats, though?"

"Oh, go ahead and tell them the truth. I don't see them getting all that worked up about it. Unlike the majority of the population, I assume cat people abductions aren't that unusual given your line of work."

"Is sad, but true," Tigra admitted.

Irie clapped his hands together. "Now that that's taken care of, why don't we give you a lift back to the Avengers? They'll be happy to see you, especially after I explain to them I was mistaken about you being a Phantom Cat spy placed in their midst."

For a moment it looked like the members of Hound would end up having to shoot the at girl after all, but after a tense moment, her shoulders slumped. "Tigra not in mood to argue. Just let Avengers know is all right, then want bath and sleep."

"A good way to end the day," Irie agreed.

And that was exactly what Tigra did.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

[Epilogue]

[Two weeks later]

"So, we have confirmation, thanks to the slut Taba is sleeping with---"

"I am not sleeping with Narusawa!"

"--that the Phantom Cats insidious plan backfired in their faces and booted every last one of them from our world."

"And dat Tigra chick is not a Phantom Cat."

"Correct, which means we have a major problem."

"We're out of smokes?"

"No, we're out of jobs. People won't hire us to stop Phantom Cats if there aren't any Phantom Cats to stop."

"And we're still in the red. Let's grab a paper and start looking through the wants ads."

"Actually, I have a better idea. I'm thinking something big. Something lucrative. Something like… Heroes for Hire."

"I think there's already an outfit like that."

"Unless they've copyrighted it, it's up for grabs. Maybe we'll even hire them on as additional staff."

"And I won't be low man on the totem pole."

"You'll always be low man on the totem pole, Taba."

"I hate my job."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[End Act III]

Finally, everything is wrapped up for this act. Yes, I know this act was a bit weak on characterization and moving major things along in the cast's alter-egos lives, (well, except for resolving the Ranma/Ryouga conflict.) So next Act I'll be trying to move things along a little better. Also sorry it took so long to get this out, especially since it wasn't all that big. You'll note I took a 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' bent with the Phantom Cats arc (the hero had no effect on the end result) Yes, the Avengers weren't actually instrumental in stopping the Phantom Cats, but there's a big world out there and they aren't the only ones defending it. Also Irie is not going to disappear, and there were a few other things that will eventually come about as the results of this arc.

Next Act will be 'The Hate Monger and The Peacemaker'. With both old and new foes, as well as some more movement on the private lives of our cast.


	35. Act IV Hate and Peace Prologue

Avenging

Act IV

The Hate Monger and the Peacemaker

Prologue

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

"Buckle up your seatbelts, boys and girls. We're in the final approach for the destination of the latest Challengers of the Fantastic/Fantastic Four get-together: the Blue Area of the Moon."

After delivering his announcement, Ben Grimm looked over his shoulder at the assemblage of passengers. His teammates, Susan Storm and Reed Richards, were sitting together while Johnny Storm had the co-pilot's chair. Makoto 'Mr. Fantastic' Mizuhara was sandwiched between Shayla-Shayla and Nanami Jinnai, aka the Human Torch and Invisible Girl. The rocky form of Fujiwara (come to think of it, Ben still didn't know the man's full name) better known as the Thing, was lamenting being sober. Thanks to a side-effect of traveling to El Hazard, Fujiwara only had his super-powered form when he was on the wagon, unlike his compatriots, Makoto and Nanami who could use their abilities of telemechanics and invisibility combined with force fields respectively, at will. Shayla-Shayla didn't count since she actually came from El Hazard and started out with her superpowers.

Johnny was also looking back and let out an audible sigh that caught Ben's attention. "Come on, kid. You had to know Reed and Mako would wanna come back and examine that ancient city we found that last time we teamed up and took care of the Red Ghost and his Super Apes up here."

"It's not that," Johnny told him. "What makes Mizuhara so lucky that he has two hot girls after him while I have no one? Why can't we have hot girls on the team?"

"Actually Suzie's pretty hot," Ben pointed out.

"Ewwww! That's my sister you're talking about. That just isn't right." Johnny grimaced.

"Which reminds me." Ben turned to his leader. "Hey Reed, when we busted Krankyhoff—"

"It was Kragoff, Ben. Ivan Kragoff."

"Yeah, whatever. Anyway in light of it being cosmic rays that changed him and his monkeys--"

"None of them were monkeys. They were a gorilla, an orangutan, and a chimpanzee."

"Anyway," Ben said in a tired voice. "Remember back right before we formed the team? You know, when you tried to talk the three of us into going up with you in that rocket of yours? Except I refused to fly it because it didn't have enough shielding to protect us from cosmic rays? And Suzie called me a coward for it until I pointed out it might do stuff to her and maybe give any kids she might have three eyes or twelve toes? She sure changed her tune and got you to back off quick enough. Heh."

"You were right, Ben," Reed admitted. "Although the odds of encountering a cosmic storm were poor, and even then there's no guarantee they would affect us in harmful ways."

"I think having a super power would be neat," Sue said. "I wouldn't mind turning invisible." She looked to Nanami.

"It works for me." Nanami turned invisible, and back again.

"But being invisible hides your great beauty," Johnny said, smiling at the girl.

Nanami scowled at the flirtation and clung to Makoto's arm even tighter. Not to be one upped, Shayla-Shayla did the same.

Johnny sighed once again and turned to his team's leader. "Hey Reed, why can't we have some girls on the team?"

Reed said, "Actually I have been thinking of inviting Alyssa Moy to join us. Her expertise in a variety of fields would be beneficial to the team."

"I don't think so," Sue said in a tone that dropped the temperature ten degrees. She then brightened up and her voice took on an almost dreamy cast. "I think Fay Flourite would be a much better choice. Not only does he have extensive knowledge of extra-dimensional travel, but also access to vast reservoirs of magic."

"Four is the ideal number for our team," Reed said in a tone that suggested the discussion was over.

Fujiwara got up from his seat and walked over to stand next to Ben.

"You'd better strap yourself in," Ben warned. "Not that you can get injured in the crash, but if you get tossed around you'd crush the rest of us like a ton of bricks."

"I only weigh 500 pounds," Fujiwara said.

"Oh, well I don't know who couldn't take a quarter of a ton of bricks landing on them," Ben said drolly.

"I little hit from a bottle could change all that," Fujiwara suggested with more than a hint of desperation in his voice.

"Uh uh. You know the drill. No drinking until after the adventuring is done. You never know when strength and invulnerability might come in handy," Ben reminded him.

"Oh come on, Just one sip. I won't be depowered for more than half an hour. Forty-five minutes tops."

"I've seen your sips. It'll be time for our next joint meeting before you rock back up." Ben wasn't totally unsympathetic with the man. Being a pile of orange bricks couldn't be all that fun, even super-powered. Ben did just fine using his natural abilities, and so did his teammates. They had taken down the Mole Man, Miracle Man, the Pluto Organization with it's so called 'Perfect Murder Plots' for sale, and the team's official arch-nemesis: Dr. Doom, as well as a host of others. The Challengers of the Fantastic were a household name across the globe thanks to the rogue's gallery of foes that had defeated. Yep, no need for super powers in his book.

Fujiwara went back to his seat, the chair groaning under his weight as he buckled up again.

As the rocket flew over the Blue Area of the moon, the groups looked down on the ruins of a vast city that stretched for miles in all directions. It appeared as though it had been manufactured of some kind of crystal, though signs of ancient destruction were clear on every structure, some of them nothing more than crystalline rubble. It appeared no building had been untouched.

Both Reed and Makoto examined a number of scanners that fed them information on every level. A normal mind would never have been able to grasp the vast amounts of data that flowed past the screens, but neither man had what would be remotely referred to as a normal mind.

"Wait, Ben, hover here," Reed said. He looked to Makoto. "What do you make of that?"

Makoto focused on the image. "The architecture is far different from the others, which vaguely resemble ancient Greece. I can't say it conforms to any style I recognize." He closed his eyes, stretching out his ability to tap into machines to the ground on the Moon. "I sense power sources there of a type I don't recognize. Multiple ones."

"It's most likely an alien structure," Reed said, satisfied his suspicions had been confirmed. "We're landing here, Ben."

"You got it." Expert pilot that he was, it took Ben only a handful of minutes to set the Challengers' rocket down on the nearest open area around the building his leader had indicated.

The teams deployed from the landing ramp, Fujiwara and Ben in the lead with both Makoto and Reed following close behind while the girls trailed closely behind their men. Johnny brought up the rear, staring at Shayla-Shayla and Nanami's rears, to be specific.

"I don't see a door," Sue said.

"I could burn a way in," Shayla-Shayla offered, her hand suddenly enveloped by flame.

"Please," Nanami said, rolling her eyes. Shayla-Shayla looked like she wanted to burn her teammate on the spot, but Nanami ignored her, closing her eyes, brow creased in concentration. "I'm covering the entire side in an invisible field and pressing it gently inward. Ah ha! Found a place that isn't solid." She pointed to a spot on the wall that appeared like any other.

Reed walked up to it. "Some kind of advanced holographic image, I believe." And walked right in, disappearing from the others' sight.

"Reed Richards, you slow down before you walk into a trap," Sue warned as she pursuing hot on his heels, the others following in turn.

As Johnny entered last he looked around. "Way bigger on the inside than the outside: definitely alien stuff." He took in the vast panorama inside the structure. While the majority of the machinery was incomprehensible to him, he did recognize viewscreens spread nearly every few feet along the entire length of one of the walls. They went as far back as the eye could see.

"You could watch a lot of television in here," Nanami said.

"I hardly think an advanced alien race would want to watch something as pointless and mundane as television," Makoto said.

"Yeah, reality TV would convince them Earth is screwed up and they'd blow up the planet," Ben said.

Makoto stopped in front of a machine with a blank viewscreen. He stared at it intently.

Reed stopped next to him. "Is your ability to control machinery telling you something?"

Makoto held his hand up to the device. Like Nanami earlier, he closed his eyes as he stretched his senses out again. "Yes, it is alien technology. Highly advanced. It would take me hours to decipher some of this. However I think I see how to turn this machine on."

Ben said, "Maybe that ain't such a great idea seeing as how whoever owns this place might not like us messing with it. For all we know it's his equivalent of a DVR and we might be messing with the settings."

"I wonder what alien porn would look like," Johnny said.

"Johnny!" Sue said, scandalized at her younger brother's behavior.

"This is the last recording that was accessed," Mokoto said, not even noticing how he ended the argument that had been about to erupt.

The viewscreen flashed on, showing a verdant savannah and a number of what appeared to be proto-humans. Before them was a thousand foot giant with a bizarre armored exterior that covered every millimeter of its surface. Whether it was a living being inside armor or some kind of robot was impossible to determine.

A voice, booming but gentle began. "Five million years ago the Celestials arrived on Earth and engaged in their usual habit of experimenting on what they perceived as the beings with the most potential for evolutionary advancement."

With a wave of the hand one of the giants encapsulated the proto-humans into two groups. Beams of some sort of unidentified energy coursed from its palms, one to each group. Immediately they began to change. One group became identical to the humans in the room.

"To this end the experimental subjects were divided into two groups. The Eternals were given a form of increased longevity and the ability to harness the power cosmic. Due to their longevity this also lent itself to genetic stagnation."

The other group became divided into a number of wide ranging forms, the only similarity to one another being a basic bipedal humanoid.

"The other group, the Youma, was given an extremely flexible genetic code that provided them with adaptability to nearly any potential environment."

The picture showed the Celestials, their genetic manipulation complete, go straight up into the skies, leaving the two groups of beings behind. The groups each went their separate ways. However the scenes began changing as Youma and Eternal clashed over and over again in violent battles.

"A rivalry developed between these two races for several millennia, with the Eternals winning the outcome on nearly every occasion. Eventually the Youma were defeated decisively and forced into seclusion under the oceans and earth, the Eternals determined never to let them see the light of day again."

Once more time sped up, showing the planet changing, and proto-humans evolving into Neanderthals, and eventually modern humans.

"With the rise of another intelligent race from the planet, a rift occurred within the Eternals society. Their leader, Zuras, felt that the Eternals should remain aloof of the newborn human race, keeping their interactions minimal and allowing humanity to grow of its own accord. He was opposed by Serenity, who was determined to have the Eternals lead the humans personally, guiding them to forge a utopian society of peace and prosperity."

Fujiwara whistled as the scene changed to show a pair of flying beings, one a large man with crimson hair and beard fighting a woman of surpassing beauty with a long mane of blonde hair flowing behind her. Each of them unleashed powerful beams of energy from both their hands and eyes at one another, devastating the landscape in a running battle.

"The two of them fought for the leadership in a battle that raged for weeks and left scars on the Earth that exist to this day. In the end, Serenity emerged the victor. In order to prevent civil war from breaking out, Zuras and his sympathizers left Earth and established a pair of colonies on the moons of Titania and Titan, which continue to flourish at the present time."

Ben slapped his hand to his forehead. "Aw, man, now I know where we're going on our next trip."

The scenes changed again to the construction of the city which lay so close to this alien structure, though the great metropolis was in much better shape than its current ruined state. Sue and Nanami stared in awe at the city in all its glory, its beauty unlike any they had ever seen.

The voice continued. "Serenity decided to relocate the Eternals to the moon so that they could look down from above on those they wished to rule. They created a city they dubbed Crystal Olympia and formed a breathable atmosphere for any visiting humans, though none would be allowed to live in the city itself. Likewise Eternals were forbidden to live on Earth, for it was her judgment that in order to rule humanity effectively they would have to live apart from it."

The scene changed to one above the Earth, showing a landmass in the middle of the Atlantic that wasn't present on any globe.

"With the construction of Crystal Olympia completed, Serenity decided a template colony would be forged first before the full enlightenment of humanity would begin. Atlantis was chosen as the continent on which to begin their venture. With their vast powers and abilities far beyond their unexperimented upon kin, the Eternals were made leaders by the largely primitive humans there. Over the centuries an advanced civilization was formed on the continent, one that far outstripped the rest of humanity. It was the beginning of what Serenity dubbed the Silver Millennium."

The scene changed again to one focusing on a woman and several men who were obviously Eternals. They were shown brutally commanding a host of Youma into carefully coordinated maneuvers.

"However, one of Serenity's chief advisors, Beryl, betrayed her. Along with a handful of other powerful Eternals, who aligned themselves with Beryl for a variety of reasons, the traitors secretly organized and trained the Youma hidden deep under the earth into a vast army. Then, at the height of Serenity's achievements, they struck simultaneously in Atlantis and on the Moon."

The others watched in horror as images of millions of people being either burned or drowned was shown without compassion or remorse and the very surface of the earth changed from the forces at play as the landmass in the center of the Atlantic was ravished by explosions across its entirety.

"Beryl sabotaged the geothermal plants on the continent, causing them to all to explode, sinking the entire continent."

The scene shifted to the crystalline city once again. A bright flash in the center of Crystal Olympia heralded the arrival of the before mentioned Youma who came poring out of the portal that had been formed, Beryl and her generals at the forefront. Immediately they attacked the denizens of the city, who quickly fell before their onslaught.

"As the shattered remnants of Atlantis slowly submerged beneath the ocean forever, Beryl and her generals teleported the entire Youma army into the heart of Crystal Olympia and attacked. While the Eternals tried to mount a resistance, the Youma army was too powerful and struck too quickly. As the casualties mounted, it quickly became evident Crystal Olympia would fall."

Again the scene shifted, this time to the interior of a great palace, Serenity at the center of a handful of Eternals that numbered less than a hundred, all of them looking injured and exhausted. Serenity held up her hands, a whirling vortex of coruscating energy forming above her. The Eternals flew into the vortex one by one, their forms changing into pure energy. Serenity was the last to fly into it, meeting the same fate. Seconds later a huge yellow thing that closely resembled a brain emerged from the top of the vortex.

"Serenity summoned the remaining Eternals, and together they transformed their bodies into one collective consciousness called the Uni-Mind."

A wave of energy shot out in all directions from the brain, flowing unimpeded by any physical structure. As the wave touched the Youma, they disappeared. When the wave touched Beryl and her fellow generals, they too met the same fate. As the last ripples of energy crossed the surface of the moon, heading toward Earth, the brain and vortex dissipated, until nothing living was left in the city.

"Understanding that they would be defeated, the Eternals used the last of their remaining power to banish Beryl, her generals, and all of the Youma on both the Moon and Earth into the Negative Zone where they remain to this day. The effort to banish their enemies used up all the power of the Uni-Mind, destroying the remaining Eternals on Earth and the Moon, leaving only humanity as inheritors of the planet. End of entry."

The screen went blank.

"Well, that was… informative," Johnny said.

Reed and Makoto already had their heads together.

"Inspection of the ruins would lead a lot of credibility to the tale," Makoto said.

Reed was just as eager. "And I'm pretty sure, thanks to that imagery, I could triangulate where Atlantis might be. This could be incredible. Two races in Earth's prehistory that committed genocide on one another, or at least in one case and banishment for the other. And this 'Negative Zone' idea is fascinating. I wouldn't mind delving into that."

Ben rolled his eyes. "Great, we come here to check out a few ruins, now we have to deal with aliens, Atlantis, and other-dimensional zones. The fun never stops when you're a member of the Challengers of the Fantastic."

Susan looked just as despondent. "I'm never going to be able to pry him out of the lab once he sinks his teeth into this. It'll take months. At least."

Shayla-Shayla and Nanami looked just as dejectedly at Makoto.

A flash of light heralded the appearance of a mysterious being that materialized before the octet. He appeared largely human, though he was twenty feet high and bald with a somewhat disportionately large cranium. He wore a simple garment similar to a toga with blue embroidery and a blue cloak.

In a voice identical to the one on the screen, he said, "Intruders, you have trespassed in the home of the Watcher. While I am forbidden to interfere in matters, neither can I allow strangers into my home."

The octet suddenly found themselves in the middle of the city they had come to investigate.

"Whoa!" Fujiwara said. "Now that was impressive."

"Fascinating," Reed had his hand to his chin in thought. "He instantly teleported a large degree of matter across an impressive distance. His abilities are astonishing. He may very well be one of the most powerful beings we've come across, to say nothing about his access to all of that amazing technology. He really need to speak with him again." Reed started to walk in the direction of the Watcher's home when Sue blocked his way.

"Oh no you don't, Reed Richards. You are going to respect that man's wishes and leave him alone."

"But Sue," Reed started to complain.

"I won't hear of it. Just because he has something you want doesn't mean he has to give it to you, and he made his intentions perfectly clear. And another thing—."

As the sounds of a speech started, Johnny and Ben quietly escorted the Fantastic Four away. Ben said, "Suzie's going to give Reed a reality check and dress him down a bit. It ain't going to be pretty so why don't we check out some of these ruins? It is why we came here in the first place."

Hearing the lecture begin, the others nodded their heads and walked away.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

[End Prologue]

[Writer's notes] Now for those worried about me overpopulating the fic with heroes, have no fear. I have no intention of using either of these groups in the near future. On the other hand, the information they learned will be very key for what is about to begin.


	36. Act IV Chap 1 Hate and Peace

Avenging

Act IV

The Hate Monger and the Peacemaker

Chapter 1

Any and all C+C appreciated. You can contact me at:

[]

All the previous chapters and my other works are stored at:

At :

.net/

Standard disclaimer: I don't own any of the Marvel characters or other characters from the numerous animes which are within.

Here's a great reference guide for many character and objects in the Marvel Universe.

[.]

[Writer's Note: Some people have correctly pointed out I'm introducing rather a lot of characters at once. Many of them are one shots villain of the weekk in nature, which means you don't have to be too concerned about them. Some are cameos (as in the prologue, neither the FF nor CotF are going to return anytime soon, though the info they received will. This particular chapter will show off both new (and old) characters again. That will be explained in the end notes, as I don't wish to give too much away.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Captain Japan burst through the doors and into the Avengers meeting room. "Okay, guys, what's the… emergency?"

Sitting at their meeting table was an attractive young woman, about the same age as him, with her long black hair tied into a ponytail that hung off the side of her head. She smiled warmly at him.

Captain Japan pointed an accusatory finger at her. "What did you do to my teammates?"

The girl raised a quizzical eyebrow. "I've provided them with a headquarters, operating expenses, and a weekly stipend."

"Err, that doesn't sound too evil."

"I should hope not. I'm Kodachi Kunou, your benefactress." She rose and bowed before him.

"Oh, pleased to meet you." He bowed back, then rose up. "This ain't the time for introductions. We got an emergency." Most likely it was another world beater, like the Mandarin, MODOK, or Master Vamp and his Allies of Evil.

Kodachi remained smiling. "I know. I'm the one who activated the signal."

"What's the emergency and where are the others?" Captain Japan asked.

Kodachi's delight grew. "It's an emergency only you can help me with. I need a dat… bodyguard, for a function tonight."

"I thought Iron Rose was your bodyguard."

Kodachi grew slightly flustered. "Ah, yes, well she's… indisposed. Therefore I'll require the services of someone else to protect me. If you can't make it, I'm afraid I'll have to call off the charity party. And the guest list is so large as well. I invited nearly everyone I could."

Captain Japan thought about that. Charities definitely fell under the 'paragon of virtue' standard he was supposed to be, and no doubt it was for a good cause. He proudly stated, "Sure, I can do it."

Kodachi gave a delighted clap of her hands. "Excellent." She snapped her fingers and a small army of tailors emerged from the rear entryway and descended upon Captain Japan.

He resisted the urge to start swatting them with his shield. "Hey, what's going on?"

She smiled beatifically at him. "They're fitting you for your tuxedo, of course."

"But I'll be wearing my outfit."

Kodachi shook her head. "Oh no, that will never do. You'll be incognito at this party."

"But my outfit already makes me incognito."

"You misunderstand. Your identity as Captain Japan is what you'll be incognito for."

"You mean I won't be wearing my outfit?"

"Goodness, no."

Captain Japan breathed a sigh of relief.

"Traipsing about naked is your partner's habit. You'll be wearing the tuxedo. It should be ready in about two hours. Where shall my limousine pick you up?"

Captain Japan sighed. This was not turning out the way he had thought. Now he was sorry he had agreed to the whole thing. But he had, and he wouldn't go back on his word even if he wasn't a paragon of virtue. Still there was no way he could let her know his secret identity. He was going to have to think fast.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

"And here's the 'Cobalt Canon'," Fixer said.

"Is that the one that was originally made by some guy named Damocles?" Mentallo asked.

Fixer read the information sheet that was under it. "Yes. Is there another one on the inventory list?"

Mentallo looked at the electronic pad in his hand. "Yep. Three Cobalt Cannons, including this one. Also there's a Cobalt Cuffs System, a Cobaltronic ray, which is opposed to the Cobalt Ray Weapon, and a Cobalt Bomb."

"This is why I hate doing inventory," Fixer sighed.

Currently the pair were in Hydra's main storage facility (nicknamed the 'doohickey warehouse') where all of the odds and ends Hydra had accumulated over the years were tucked away for potential future use. Swords, ray guns, robots, and even chemicals, such as Formula 410 (which safely cleaned porcelain, enamel, glass, and all consciousness from the brain) and a host of other items both mundane and bizarre. Not that much of it saw any use, as evidenced by the dust that coated just about every inch of the room. The Imperial Hydra was very much a pack rat, evidently.

"This is punishment for not coming through on that whole mental device booster, isn't it?" Mentallo lamented.

"Most likely," Fixer agreed. "Beats being killed, or reassigned to the Antarctic base."

Mentallo's head jerked so suddenly he almost gave himself a case of whiplash. "Whoa, I sense something evil nearby."

Fixer panicked. "The Hydra Legal Division?"

"No. I mean the type of evil that feels like an inky cloud of darkness creeping over your soul, not the type that tortures you while overbilling you for it. It's in this direction." He navigated the aisles of the warehouse, moving unerringly until he stopped directly in front of some kind of bulky, weird-looking, golden helmet with a large 'V' symbol on the top.

Fixer looked closely at it. "It is garish, but evil?"

Mentallo nodded. "Definitely. It's like it's calling out to me, but it's 'voice' is muted."

Fixer read the information sheet under it. "According to this it was purchased at an estate sale ten years ago. It originally belonged to an American, Paul Destine, a politician who ran for the presidency in the late 40's. Says he had almost supernatural charisma. Was a front runner until he announced to the world he could fly and promptly jumped off a building and to his death. Evidently he confused falling with flying." Fixer put the sheet back.

"We need to report this to the Imperial Hydra." Mentallo said. "And whatever you do don't wear it."

"Why would I wear something that hideous, let alone evil?"

"Everyone knows evil helms of power are incredibly seductive, the more ostentatious and ridiculous the more irresistible they become."

"I'm not going to put it on," Fixer assured him.

"That's a relief."

"I'm a scientist, so I'm going to find out what makes it tick." Fixer cradled the helm protectively in his arms as he took it off the shelf.

Mentallo sighed. This was not going to end well. He could feel it in his bones. At least there was one redeeming thing about the situation: there were no lesbians involved in it.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Four hours later Fixer and Mentallo found themselves standing in the Imperial Hydra's audience chamber. The leader of Hydra was seated behind an expensive antique desk that everyone knew bristled with hidden high tech armament that could kill anyone using a host of inventive means with the flick of a switch. Not too many people argued with management under those conditions.

As they waited before the Imperial Hydra, one of Fixer's passive scanners informed him there was some sort of incoming transmission being directed to their leader. It was a heavy information beam, more than a normal person should be able to process. Most likely it was some sort of remote, which implied the person before them was a robot. Oh well, it wasn't any of Fixer's business who was pulling the strings to the organization. All he cared about was getting paid and being allowed to use the labs to build whatever he wanted. The man behind the curtain could stay right where he was, as far as Fixer was concerned.

"All right, this had better be good," the Imperial Hydra warned.

Fixer held out the item that had drawn him to their leader's chambers. "While doing inventory we discovered this. After hours of research we determined that the helmet you see before you is in fact a casing, one which acts as shielding for what's inside."

"Like one of those annoying Russian dolls that has other dolls inside of them? I hate those things," the Imperial Hydra warned.

"A babushka doll," Mentallo provided.

"Oh, a name to my pain. Would you like one given to yours? I'm thinking 'electrical discharge." The Imperial Hydra's finger hovered over a button.

"No thanks," Mentallo said quickly.

Fixer returned to the matter at hand. "Here are the images we managed to glean." He showed a set of black and white sheets, similar to x-rays. "From this we can determine it's another, smaller crown."

The Imperial Hydra perked up noticeable. "Now that sounds interesting."

Mentallo said, "At this point I feel compelled to point out that the exterior is intended as shielding as well as camouflage, and that it might have been put around the 'insanely evil artifact' for a very good reason."

The Imperial Hydra scoffed. "Probably some namby-pamby do-gooder who had no idea of how to deal with real power. Now crack that baby open like a piñata and get to the goodies inside."

Fixer took out a cutting laser from his belt, adjusted it to its highest setting, and turned it on. It took several seconds, but it eventually cut through the casing. He continued moving the laser over the metal, bisecting it. He was almost halfway done when there was a loud cracking noise and the casing split in half the rest of the way on its own, as though some power forced it apart. With the casing gone, its contents stood revealed.

The interior crown was scaly green with seven snake heads on the top lying flat. Three were pointed to the left while three others pointed to the right with one facing forward. All of the eyes were pure red, yet malevolent in some indescribable manner.

The Imperial Hydra nodded in approval. "Seven heads. Obviously it was destiny for this item to fall in the hands of an organization named Hydra."

"The last guy to own it was actually named Destine and it didn't do him any good," Mentallo pointed out. "Now that the shielding's gone, it's giving off a serious 'wear me' vibe. Kind of like a psychic sledgehammer. Perhaps we should dump it somewhere safe, like an active volcano or the bottom of the ocean?"

The Imperial Hydra scoffed. "Don't be such a ninny. How much more dangerous could it be than a Death Spore Bomb?"

"Do you plan on wearing it?" Fixer asked.

"It really, really wants to be worn," Mentallo warned.

"Put an immensely powerful object of unknown origin on my head? That's up there with injecting yourself with untested drugs to make you more powerful. That happened to one of our researchers. He made a formula that was supposed to make one as strong as a gorilla. Since he was your typical skinny scientist type convinced of his infallibility, he used it on himself. Well, it worked all right, by turning him into a gorilla. We code named him 'Monster Ape'. No, I'll allow the privilege of wearing the crown to one of my subordinates. Not you two," the Imperial Hydra assured them as the pair tensed up. "I have a different type of lackey in mind." The Imperial Hydra hit a button to an intercom. "Send me Madame and Master Hydra."

Ten minutes later a pair of agents entered the room. One was a woman in a skintight suit of Hydra green, showing off an athletic body. She even wore green lipstick along with her merciless gaze.

The other was a man in the more standard green outfit of a Hydra agent, loose almost to the point of bagginess. He didn't wear a mask, and he showed off an unearthly pale face.

Both agents held up their hands and shouted out the Hydra slogan.

Once the formalities were complete, the Imperial Hydra spoke. "Now listen up. I'm looking for an agent to lead a special mission, one that needs someone really evil to run it. You two come highly recommended, so I'm going to ask you a few questions and your answers will determine who gets the assignment." The Imperial Hydra pulled out a questionnaire and began reading from it. "What's the largest amount of money you made using an evil scheme? Madame Hydra?"

"I used a convent as a front for a drug smuggling and prostitution ring that made millions," Madame Hydra answered primly.

The Imperial Hydra turned to the other applicant. "Master Hydra."

"Please, call me Orochimaru," he asked.

"Nice name. Unsettling, yet friendly in a creepy way. Now, what's the scheme you came up with?"

"I once sent out a chain letter that made me hundreds," he offered.

The Imperial Hydra grimaced. "Ah yes. I've always hated those things. You know they're a scam, but you're so afraid of receiving bad luck that you send money anyway. Very evil indeed." The leader went to the next question. "What is the greatest number of people you've killed at one time? Orochimaru?"

"I once blew up a Japanese restaurant because of poor service."

The Imperial Hydra nodded. "I know what you mean. Every time I order drive thru from fast food franchises they always get my order wrong, even if it's only one thing. It takes everything I have not to order every McDonalds razed to the ground." The Imperial Hydra turned to the other applicant. "Madame Hydra?"

"I once blew up an entire village because I was bored."

The Imperial Hydra wrote the answer down. "Next question. What's the evilest act you take the most pride in? Madame Hydra?"

"I've killed over a hundred people in the human testing phase of the new poison I've created."

"Inventive. Orochimaru."

Orochimaru pulled out his sidearm and shot Madame Hydra in the head. "I once killed a coworker because we were in competition for the same job opening."

The Imperial Hydra nodded. "Thinking outside the box. I like that. I like it a lot." A button on the desk was pushed. Loud speakers blared as the leader said, "Attention, clean up in the Imperial Hydra's office with a mop." It was shut off and the Imperial Hydra returned to Orochimaru. "You're definitely evil enough for the job. But before I give you the mission profile, there's just one little thing I need you to do."

With a snap of the fingers Fixer and Mentallo stepped into the room, the Serpent Crown borne on a wheeled serving cart, next to a tea set. They stopped in front of Orochimaru.

"You're offering me tea?" Orochimaru asked.

"No, although you're welcome to some. It's that crown I need you to wear. It's the perfect adornment for a strike leader."

"That's a relief. I've always been more of a coffee man myself." Orochimaru donned the crown. As he did so he jerked suddenly, tilting his head as if listening to a far off voice.

"How do you feel?" the Imperial Hydra asked.

"As though my horizons had suddenly been broadened."

"His pupils just became vertical slits. Did anyone pick up on that?" Mentallo asked.

"They better to see you with, my dear, that's all," Orochimaru assured him as he shot a slender tongue out that licked the underside of his chin.

"Excellent," the Imperial Hydra said. "Now on to your mission. It's a money-raising venture against the greedy capitalist imperialists of both the East and West, since I don't want people to think Hydra discriminates. It's a hostage/ransom thing, so you have wide discretionary powers, and feel free to use your nifty new helmet however you see fit."

"With pleasure," Orochimaru hissed.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Kodachi internally grimaced at how things had turned out. Really, and she had thought it was a wonderful plan. Finally she had worked up the courage to land Captain Japan for herself. The first step in getting him alone with the bogus emergency worked like a charm, as was manipulate… convincing him to go out with her sans uniform. She had assumed the rest of the plan entailing him falling in love with her after basking in her company would go as easily.

It had taken her four hours to choose the right dress, a high-necked gown that accentuated her lithe form while being tasteful. It was perfect. While she would have liked to show some bosom, there was the little matter of the device affixed to her chest to keep the shrapnel out of her heart. While she had miniaturized it as much as she could, it was still visible, and a dress that peeked too low would have shown it. She really needed to consider designing a surgical implant for under the skin. A variation of an artificial pacemaker would be ideal. But that was for later. At the moment Captain Japan was what really mattered.

Her limousine had picked him up from Avengers Mansion and brought him to her. However, when he arrived things had not gone quite as she had expected. While his tuxedo was perfectly fitted to his muscular frame (and showed off his great ass), he had shown up with freshly permed hair, a bushy mustache, and large aviator style sunglasses. She saw more of his normal face with his mask. When she asked him why he looked that way, he had explained he had to maintain his secret identity –even to her! Kodachi had not been happy about that at all. This was when they were supposed to 'let it all hang out' (well, perhaps not *everything*, at least until the third or fourth date). When she had asked him his name, he informed her to address him as 'C.J.'. Really! Still, she had not informed him of her dual identity yet, so she couldn't demand it of him, and some men did not appreciate a woman's guiding hand, so she would have to take what she could have… for now.

That included attaching herself to his arm in front of the crème-de-la-crème of the rich and famous she had invited to this party. She had pulled out all the stops, hiring only the best facilities, caterers, and even snared the musical duo of Chiaki and Noda, two of the most sought after musicians in all of Japan. Not that she thought she could buy her Captain's attentions, he was much too heroic for that, but flaunting it didn't hurt either.

Already Kodachi and her escort drew many stares from the guests, which delighted her to no end. This was much more fun that always being locked away in some stuffy lab designing the 'next big thing' in modern warfare.

As they made another circuit of the ballroom, the disguised Captain said, "This is just a stupid party. What am I supposed to be guarding you from anyway?"

"Oh, the usual. Kidnappers. Radicals. Helmut Zemo's wandering hands."

"That guy did have cat-like reflexes," 'C.J.' agreed, recalling how he had nearly managed to touch-brush both Kodachi's breasts and ass simultaneously. If Zemo went the super-villain route, 'The Human Tentacle' was probably the perfect name.

A high feminine voice called out, "Dachi-chan!"

Kodachi jerked as if struck in the face by a cattle prod, and then slowly turned to the caller. "Blast," she hissed under her breath.

The 'incognito hero' looked at the girl that had called out Kodachi's name. She appeared about his age, with aristocratic features that were shared by the man she was holding hands with, the family resemblance between them unmistakable. "What is it? Party crashers?"

"Oh, if only it were someone so desirable. It's Ryoko and Shuutaro, the Mendou Twins," Kodachi thought about it a moment. "Well, technically they aren't twins, but they're together so often they might as well be."

She had put up with Ryoko's crap in particular for far too much a portion of her life. The problem with the rich and privileged was that they generally only allowed their children to mingle with other children of the rich and privileged, as though lack of money was a contagious disease. And frankly most of Kodachi's contemporaries were spoiled brats, Ryoko first and foremost among them. She wasn't a physical bully, but she had an acid tongue and haughty attitude. The one time she had actually become outright frightening was when her brother, Shuutaro, had paid what Ryoko deemed too much of his attention to Kodachi. Not that Kodachi liked the pompous twit: he reminded her far too much of her missing brother. At least he didn't run around with a bokken and pretend he was a samurai.

Kodachi's frown was replaced by a strained smile. "Ryoko, dear, so nice of you to drop in."

"Oh, I could hardly pass up an opportunity to attend one of your parties, since they're so infrequent. And that's a nice dress you have. It covers you up nicely."

Kodachi's eyebrow twitched. She had a better body than Ryoko, she just couldn't display her wares in that manner. "I see you have a nice dress as well, especially for it being off the rack."

"It's a Dior original," Ryoko assured her, then turned to Kodachi's compatriot. "I see you've hired a new bodyguard."

"Actually he's my escort for the evening," Kodachi 'corrected'. "This is C.J., who is quite the man." She felt her Captain jerk at the statement, and went on before he could say an awkward statement. "A pity you couldn't dig up anyone other than your brother to take you."

Ryoko mirrored Kodachi's motion by putting her arm through Shuutaro's snuggling against him even more closely. "I'd only date a man who could compare to my brother, and I haven't found one yet."

Shuutaro finally entered the conversation. "And I feel the same way about finding a woman superior to my sister. Mendous don't settle for second best." He turned to C.J. "So, I understand you're one of Kodachi's test subjects for the new line of steroids from her recent pharmaceutical acquisition?"

"I do not use steroids," The hero assured him, as well as reminding himself snobby blowhards were not super-villains you could go around beating the hell out of, no matter how popular it might make you. "You could probably afford to put in a few hours at the gym."

Shuutaro gave him an appalled look. "And have people think I work for a living? Hardly, I'm going for the 'indolent, decadent rich' appearance."

"And you pull it off wonderfully, brother," Ryoko said as she all but genuflected in his presence.

Before the verbal sparring could continue, a girl, European in appearance, took Shuutaro's arm in an affectionate manner. Ryoko shot the girl a look a truly evil glare. Kodachi recognized her as Justine Hammer, another child of the rich, though from what Kodachi had heard her powerful father, Justin Hammer, was not exactly thrilled with her behavior. She wasn't an official black cat of the family, but nor was she held as the heir apparent.

"Mendou-kun, so wonderful to see you," Justine said, as a larger man followed her over, though his attitude was deferential rather than that of an equal.

"It's good to see you, Justine, though you are a behaving a bit friendlier than normal." Shuutaro grabbed his sister's hand as she raised it up, looking like she was about to point an accusatory finger at the newcomer.

Under her breath Justine said, "That damned Zemo tried cornering me so he could show me his 'Death Ray.' Really, just because our fathers do business together he thinks he can take liberties."

"Oh no. He does it because women get within arm's reach," Kodachi informed her.

Justine finally seemed to notice the others, though she remained attached to Shuutaro's arm. "Nice bodyguard," she said to Kodachi in reference to the C.J..

"Escort!" Kodachi hissed. Why was it everyone thought she couldn't land a man as hunky as her Captain?

The large man that had arrived with Justine spoke in English. "I could just rip out off his arms. It comes with super strength."

Justine rolled her eyes. "My 'escort'," she explained to the others, which obviously translated into 'bodyguard', which irritated Kodachi even more. Justine said to him, "Just because you were formally known as 'Man Brute' doesn't mean you should continue to act like one. You can't kill guests." She gave a questioning, almost hopefully glance to Kodachi.

"No, you can't." She hoped Justine was joking. Her father was known for his ruthlessness in business dealings, and he might have had people crushed more than figuratively.

Another man walked over to the gathering. He was an American in his late twenties with dark hair and mustache. On his arm was a striking redhead in a dress what showed off her rather obvious attributes. Kodachi identified him as Tony Stark. Finally, someone that did something. He was a genius in his own right, rivaling her own, and he owned his own business. Stark Industries was a rival thanks to its Japanese branch, and the two of them had bid on the same projects on a number of occasions, breaking even on landing them.

"Greetings, Miss Kunou. Nice mustache," Stark said to the hero in only slightly accented Japanese as he kissed Kodachi's hand.

C.J. felt pride at his disguise being so excellent that everyone thought it was a real mustache.

"Mr. Stark, I wasn't sure you could come," Kodachi said as he kissed her hand. Tony Stark was quite striking, though a second to her Captain. Not a distant second, just second.

"I was in the country and it wouldn't do my playboy image any good to skip out on a party, even one thrown by a rival. Or to not have at least one attractive lady at my side. Allow me to introduce Bethany Cabe."

Kodachi noticed her Captain pay far too much attention to the buxom redhead. Really, what was it about large-breasted bimbos that men found so appealing, like that Bucky trollop? Blow up dolls had the same appeal, and were nearly as dynamic conversationalists.

A waiter approached bearing a tray full of wine. "It's Bollinger," Kodachi informed them as she accepted a glass, her Captain doing the same.

Stark's eyes lit up, but just as he was reaching for it Cabe cleared her throat meaningfully. "Club soda for myself. I'm driving."

"No chauffer?" Shuutaro asked as he took a drink.

"For a Ferrari? That would be as disgraceful as driving it under the speed limit." He laughed at the joke.

Another voice joined in, saying "And here I was hoping to beat you to the prettiest woman in the room for a change, Stark."

All eyes turned to another American, this one with no accent in his Japanese whatsoever. He was in his late forties to early fifties, slightly overweight. On his arm was a beautiful Asian woman and while her attributes were not as noticeable as Cabe's, they still made Kodachi feel a bit intimidated.

Not that she paid the woman much attention. Kodachi's surprise was genuine as she said, "Mr. Jones. I'm delighted you came." She had sent the invitation to him largely as a formality. A man as important and influential as Hugh Jones rarely attended parties, and even then it was usually only if large business proceedings were at play, which, despite their contact with one another, had not happened.

"So this is your 'heavyweight', Ling?" Cabe said to the Asian woman.

"Told you I had the bigger whale this time out," Ling said.

Ha! Whores, Kodachi thoughts to herself. She wouldn't be surprised to find out Tigra was an acquaintance of the pair.

Hugh Jones, the head of Roxxon Energy Corporation, gave Kodachi a short bow. "Given our recent dealings, a transpacific flight is hardly an inconvenience."

The caught Stark's interest. "I didn't know you two had any dealing together."

"Perhaps we should have one ourselves," a new voice ventured.

Kodachi felt her teeth grind as yet another beauty approach the gathering, one that had no shame displaying her wares either. The furry slut would be quite at home with this lot, although in the case of Sunset Bain at least she had accomplished something. Baintronics had been a relatively small firm until the miraculous inroads in robotics they had made over the last year. They were quickly become a force on the market, and some said in underground markets as well.

A man with a face that could have been made of stone stood next to her as she said. "It is Tony Stark, isn't it?"

"Indeed Ms…. Bain, I believe." He kissed her offered hand as well.

Ryoko looked at them curiously. "Wait a minute. Weren't you two dating last year?"

Stark nodded. "It's a little game we play. Whenever we run into one another we act like it's the first time we met."

"Wouldn't that make marriage rather awkward?" Shuutaro ventured.

Sunset looked over Cabe. "I see you brought a nice little toy to this soiree." Cabe's only reaction was a narrowing of the eyes, though Bain didn't react to it. "My own is Aaron Stack, and he's a fully functional toy."

Her companion didn't react to the comment. Kodachi thought the man might be dead. Perhaps that was the only way a man could stomach the haughty bitch.

"I can't help noticing that an S-F 202 Grenade could triple my share of the market."

All eyes turned to the latest newcomer, a striking woman with long flowing black hair and a gown that flaunted attributes which rivaled Cabe's. Despite being Kodachi's age, she had an air about her that reeked of perceived superiority to all things under god, and maybe an even standing with him. At her side a slender, though handsome Japanese man about the same age as her.

Stark was the first to respond. "Greetings, Ms. Stane. Mr… Shaw, I believe."

"Shinobi Shaw." The man bowed formally.

"It's Stane-Daitokuji," Biko corrected. "Part of the concession on selling to my late father was that he take the Daitokuji family name as well as the family business."

"My condolences on his death," Jones said. "He was a formidable businessman."

"You mean he was a bastard," Biko corrected without a shred of remorse. "And that carried over to his family life as well. Of course many say the same thing about me."

Justine said, "Has anyone noticed the disturbing number of grisly demises of company owners of late? It makes me glad I'm only the dilatants offspring of one."

"Here, here," Shuutaro said, raising a glass then lowering his sister's arm as it lifted toward Justine yet again.

"Thish shtuff is good," C.J. said as he swayed slightly.

"Indeed, Captain High Tolerance," Shuutaro quipped.

"How'd you know I wash a Captain?" he asked.

"Good taste in facial hair and drinks. I used to be a Captain Morgan man myself," Stark joked.

On Kodachi's part she could only stare at her escort in horror. Her Captain was inebriated? He only had two glasses. Surely one of his fortitude could imbibe more than that with no ill effect. On the other hand if he was rendered in such a state she would be able to take advantage of him using her feminine wiles. She did want him to respect her in the morning, though. To ply him with more drinks or not?

Her indecision was proven secondary as a loud crash emanated from the entryway of the ballroom. Two dozen armed men in green outfits and masks identifying them as Hydra agents stormed into the room. A trio of women followed, Titania and Letha in their wrestling tights while Poundcakes wore a chainmail outfit with oversized boots and a metal helmet which covered most of her face. Mentallo and Fixer hovered in on the one-man anti-gravity platforms they had used in the 'Takeover of Nerima' plan. Following them was a large ape with a nametag clipped to his fur that had the printed words 'Hello, My Name is' followed by in red magic marker, 'Monster Ape'. The final person to join the group was obviously the leader, a pale faced man, his skin scaly, wearing a gaudy crown with snakes on it.

Orochimaru shouted so everyone in the room could hear. "Ladies and Gentlemen, I am proud to announce this is the point in the party where you are to give generously to our charitable organization. Since you are all men and women of both influence and affluence, the contributions will be in the sum of five million each that will be deposited electronically into the account numbers you will be provided with. In exchange you will all be given the gift prize of… your lives."

The plainclothes hero said, "It's about time something happened. Now I can shed this ridiculous disguise!"

Kodachi was both thrilled and excited that her Captain was willing to give up his secret identity for her welfare.

He jumped up on a table, ripping off his sunglasses and mustache. "Foul villains, prepare to be beaten by the greatest Avenger of them all. Captain Morgan!"

"Here, here," Shuutaro agreed, downing the rest of his drink in one gulp.

As everyone else stared at 'The Captain' in confusion, Mentallo ran a telepathic scan of the room's occupants to gauge the potential resistance. Oh ho, the attractive redhead with Stark was a bodyguard, and the woman with Jones was her partner. Hmm. Oh good, that was business partner, not sexual partner. Moving on, uh oh, that brother and sister would be a problem unless they were gotten out of arms reach of one another. And, Captain Japan was incognito at that party. That was potentially worse. He was about to alert Orochimaru when a particularly strong thought came from one of the guests. He read it

…And his heart froze.

He turned to Fixer. "We don't stand a chance of winning! We have to leave right now!" And flew out of the room as thought he demons of Hell were on his tail.

Fixer hesitated a moment. What the hell had sent his partner packing? The Imperial Hydra would not be happy about them fleeing a mission without a valid reason, and he sure didn't see one. You couldn't run when one random drunk said he was going to beat on you. On the other hand, his psychic partner had seemed terrified.

He went with Mentallo's judgment. Oh well, they would simply hang together if it was something stupid.

He caught up to Mentallo. "What the heck was that about?"

Mentallo told him.

"Oh god! That was there? I heard AIM had sold it, but I had no idea that was who had purchased it. Why didn't I see it?"

"Because it can make itself into a duplicate of anyone if it's around them long enough." Luckily being able to tell the Imperial Hydra who owned it now should keep them in his good graces, or at least what passed for them. Running inventory for the rest of one's life was a hell of a lot safer than being annihilated with ones own power.

Xxxxxxxxx

Orochimaru scowled in distaste at the cowards who had deserted him. Set would see to it they were dealt with once this mission was over. The Hydra agent seemed to have a natural affinity with the Elder God for whom the crown was a link. Lacking the casing, the Serpent Crown was truly unfettered for the first time in ages. Oh yes, Orochimaru had a plan in addition to the kidnapping and ransom. Before he released each of these pompous billionaires each would have the crown adorn their heads, and once their minds had touched Set's, they would forever be in his thrall. Having control of a goodly portion of the business world would be the first step to true global domination.

But first it was time to retake control of the situation by disposing of that would be hero. "Titania, take care of that drunken fool."

"With pleasure." The Idakaya Bomb Bar was specifically designed for drunken louts, even if this one hadn't hit on her.

Titania went over to the swaying idiot and brought her arm back in so she could clothesline his head off.

Instead he reacted with lightning speed, bringing a fist up dead on target and catching her right in the jaw. The guy was a true powerhouse, and she had been so convinced he was genuinely drunk she hadn't considered defending herself. The blow knocked her senseless.

"Titania!" Letha cried out. With feline grace she bounded across two tables and aimed a drop kick at her mentor's attacker. For some reason, rather than trying to move, he held his arm up in front of him, like he had an invisible shield.

Her blow caught him clean in the gut, knocking him off his perch. She landed on a table, then crouched and pounced upon him, but he had enough of his senses to roll out of the way, and, in a show of remarkable agility and coordination, got to his feet.

As Letha looked at him, she suddenly recognized him. "You're that guy that ruined Poundcakes' date."

He stared at her. "And you're that chick that was a pretty good fighter. Too bad thunderthighs ruined it."

"Well not this time!" The two began fighting.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

Orochimaru scowled at the display. Really, what use was the glorified wrestler when she couldn't even take care of a single drunken idiot? He turned to one of the men next to them. "Shoot him."

"Letha is in the way, Sir," the agent said.

"Shoot them. Shoot them both. On stun, though. I don't want a stray shot to kill one of our hostages, at least not until after they've paid their ransom."

Kodachi overheard the command and saw several men aim their weapons at the pair, who were too caught up in their fight to notice the guns aimed in their direction. She cursed her lack of foresight in not bringing her armor along, but she had truly believed she had nothing to fear with her Captain at her side. And romance had been the primary objective of the evening. Now what was she to do? Heroically throw herself in the path of the oncoming beams? While it sounded noble, it sounded even more painful, and it wasn't like she would stand a chance to do anything.

A hail of gunfire took the decision out of Kodachi's hands. She turned to see Cabe and the Ling girl had overturned two tables and pulled out a pair of guns from under their dresses while their charges were under cover, though Stark seemed to be protesting. They were shooting with dangerous accuracy, each shot striking a Hydra agent. It was then Kodachi recalled the name of Cabe, and a Ling McPherson. They were a bodyguard agency, highly recommended as she recalled. Well, no doubt they whored themselves out as well, though at the moment their bodyguarding was the more important skill set they were bringing to bear.

The gunfire attracted the attention of the Hydra personnel, and a hail of energy beams saturated the area. Apparently Justine didn't care for the attention as Kodachi saw her order her bodyguard into action. Several stray blasts struck him, but he barely flinched. It was only when he met Poundcakes that his progress was halted, the large girl kicking him while he tried hammering her with his fists. Biko and Shaw sought cover elsewhere, Shaw placing himself in front of the girl. Stack was standing before Bain, who seemed nonplussed by all the gunfire around her, as though assuming her date could withstand the withering fire. Kodachi swore she saw several of the shots arc away from them.

It was then the Mendous stood up, Ryoko's left hand in Shuutaro's right. She announced "Your drink seems to have ended up all over my dress. I'm really quite put out. Let us put an end to things, brother dear."

"Well put, sister."

The pair leveled their free hands at the cluster of Hydra agents. A red beam of energy emanated from Ryoko's hand while a blue one came from Shuutaro's. The red beam struck the floor, melting it and causing all the men standing upon it to fall downward, while the blue one struck in the midst of another group, the impact sending men flying everywhere.

That turned the tide of battle as the remainder of the Hydra personnel, not anticipating super-powered resistance, began to run for it. Even Monster Ape grabbed the semi-conscious Titania, followed by running into Captain Japan from behind and making like Faye Wray with Letha as he leapt out a window with the pair. Kodachi assumed it was over, as only the leader of the group was left standing.

And then beams of energy emanated from the seven serpent heads on the crown. One caught Shuutaro, hurling him from Ryoko's hand. Rather than shooting the leader, she cried out in distress and went to help her brother. Another leveled both Poundcakes and Justine's bodyguard, while the remaining blasts forced everyone, except the still standing Bain and Stack, to run away.

"I got you, Snake Head," the costumeless Captain Japan shouted, using near inhuman agility to dodge a number of blasts aimed at him. Once next to the leader he began pounding away. Kodachi's heart hammered at her chest as her future boyfriend saved the day, pummeling the fiend who had tried to ransom her. It made her want to swoon, were she not made of sterner stuff.

Just as it appeared the leader was incapacitated a random blast from the helm clipped the hero in the head. Stunned, the Hydra leader fled out the way he had come in.

Kodachi rushed over to her fallen hero, who was recovering quickly. How was she to approach him? Damsel in distress relieved at her hero saving her? Concerned comrade? Hmm. The latter seemed the best, and if it failed, she would do the former.

By the time she had decided the Captain was on his feet, rubbing his head. "Are you all right?" she asked.

The hero scowled. "Yeah. Darn it, that grappler chick got away again. One of these days we got to have a fight without any interference so I can prove I'm tougher once and for all."

Seeing him in such foul spirits, Kodachi decided to cheer him up. "You were the one who put a stop to the leader when everyone else failed."

That brightened his mood considerably. "Yeah, you're right. I did save the day." He turned to Kodachi and looked her in the eyes. "I got to confess something to you."

Kodachi felt her heart nearly rip out of her chest it beat so hard. A love confession after only one date. Yes! It was her dream come true.

He continued. "At first I thought this whole bodyguard crap was going to be the most boring thing ever – who wants to hang out with a bunch of rich snobs stuffing themselves with fish eggs and boozing it up like a bunch of drunken lushes-- but it actually turned out pretty good. I'm glad I came. It was a great party. Thanks for inviting me."

Kodachi sighed on the inside. Too bad, she was hoping for him to confess his love for her, but she supposed it would take at least two or three dates, and he was obviously sincere in having a good time. It really had been a near perfect evening, she thought as the sirens of fire engines, police cars, and ambulances headed toward the party. There was only one burning question in her mind.

How could she make the second date top this one?

Xxxxxxxxxxx

Orochimaru staggered away from the sound of sirens. He had underestimated his mastery of the Serpent Crown and the mental energy required to harness its power. The force blasts had taken a lot out of him, and those sledgehammers that drunken idiot called fists had taken their toll as well. It had taken the last of Orochimaru's mental strength to summon the final burst to throw the fool from him and make an escape.

But it was a temporary setback at best. A day, two at the most, and he would be far more in tune with the Serpent Crown as well as replenishing his mental energies. Then it might be time to let the Imperial Hydra in on the wonders of being a servant to Set. All it would take to get his foot in the door was donning the Serpent Crown but once and all would be well.

Orochimaru turned a corner and encountered three people. Or more appropriately, two people and a yellow ball with a face on it that held a plastic bag with DVDs in it. The boy was a teenager with dark hair that exuded angst (even more than the typical teen). He wore a blue jacket with a fan on it and seemed vaguely familiar. The dark-haired girl appeared about the same age, dressed in a skimpy pink kunoichi outfit. While the boy radiated angst, the girl held an aura of perpetual cheer about her. Even her headband had a smiley face on it.

The boy took one look at Orochimaru and said, "You!" It wasn't the sort of you that was in the vein of, "You just won a million dollars," nor was it, "You need to feed the meter." It wasn't even, "Mr. Yu, so nice to drop by." It was, "You aren't going to exist a moment longer."

Orochimaru hated that one.

Lacking any weapons, and unable to summon the energies of the Serpent Crown, Orochimaru went with wheedling his way out of things. He waved his hand before the boy's face, "I am not the terrorist you are looking for."

The girl and yellow ball said in a droning tone, "You are not the terrorist we are looking for."

The boy's response was, "Of course you are!"

Damn, two out of three wasn't bad, though. "I am certain that whatever you resent me for is totally out of proportion with what I actually did."

"You blew up my family's restaurant with them in it!"

Of course! That was it. Orochimaru had just mentioned that incident. "Would it help if I assured you they had it coming?"

In response Sasuke inhaled deeply, and then exhaled a steady stream of fire that would have put napalm to shame. Orochimaru died instantly and was incinerated within seconds, the faint smell of roasted snake and a pile of ashes the only indication he had been there.

xxxxxxxxx

A hand popped out from Onsokumaru's body and reached up to touch Sasuke's shoulder. "Now have you come to the realization that the path of vengeance leaves one empty inside?"

"Are you kidding? For the first time in years I feel great. It's as though a great burden has been lifted from my shoulders, and I'm filled with a satisfaction that boarders on ecstasy."

"But you're not smiling," Shinobu pointed out.

"Sasuke Uchiha smiles on the inside."

"You're just staying angsty so the girls continue to flock to you, aren't you?" Onsokumaru accused.

Sasuke remained silent.

Onsokumaru sighed. "In any case, I've led you to the man you wanted to kill, as I promised. Now you have to keep working for me."

Sasuke turned on him. "We were out on your weekly porn run and we just happened to run into him."

"'Ninja Girls Go Wild' is not porn!" Onsokumaru insisted. "It's a valuable tool in assessing potential recruits. Sort of like the ninja equivalent of a combine in college football."

"How does knowing a ninja girl's breast size help recruit them?"

"It tells us what size uniforms we need to order."

"But mine are always too short and too tight," Shinobu pointed out by fingering her low cut, tight top.

"No, they're just right," Onsokumaru assured her, drool escaping from his mouth.

Shinobu was about to say something else, then turned and pointed at the pile of ashes that had once been Orochimaru. "Look. That snake crown is sitting there, unmarked by the flames."

"Let me see it." Hands extended from the sides of Onsokumaru and stretched out to pick up the crown. He placed it on his head. Instantly his red orbs turned into vertical slits and his yellow surface took on a scaly composition. To no one in particular, he said, "Yesss, I sssseeee, SSSSSSet." He paused, as though listening to a voice only he could hear. "No, I don't have to hissss my essssesssss. I thought it would be a nice touch." He paused again, "Ultimate power? Well, let me sssssee." He pulled a mirror from out of nowhere and gazed at his reflection. "Sorry, while it's tempting, there's no way I can pick up babes wearing something as hideous as this." He lifted the crown off his head and tossed down a nearby sewer.

He turned to his companions. "Now let's go watch those recruiting films." And continued heading to his headquarters with his two ninja associates in tow.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[End chapter]

Yay! We're back. Yes, this one was a bit loaded with new characters, but most of them were camouflage for the one really important one in the set so don't let it drive you too crazy. I'm trying to keep who Mentallo probed a mystery at the moment, though there are probably some people who suspect based on previous chapters. A No Prize to those who know what Mentallo and the Fixer ran from and figured out who owns it, given the clues in previous chapters. The Mendous abilities are identical to Fenris (the Von Strucker twins). Heck, I even wrapped up Sasuke's little subplot from way back in Act II.

Next chapter will have a little plot development that will make things a little more difficult for Ranma.


	37. Act IV Interlude 1

Avenging

Act IV

The Hate Monger and the Peacemaker

Interlude 1

Any and all C+C appreciated. You can contact me at:

[]

All the previous chapters and my other works are stored at:

At :

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Standard disclaimer: I don't own any of the Marvel characters or other characters from the numerous animes which are within.

Here's a great reference guide for many character and objects in the Marvel Universe.

[.]

Writer's forward: I had planned on doing this as part of chapter 2, but since I haven't had the time, and I want to show I am still working on the story, I'll release it as a standalone. I might combine it at a future date, or I might do the rest of the interludes as standalones as well. It won't be until the second half of the act that the interludes tie together.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Saeko Mizuno was relaxing in her kitchen, enjoying some music, when there was a knock at the backdoor. Curious as to what sort of visitor would approach from her back porch rather than the front, she went to the door. Curtains covered the window above the handle, though she could make out a large figure through a lacy haze. Not suspecting any trouble, she simply opened the door, welcoming smile on her face.

"Greetings, woman, you are graced with the presence of his majesty, Dr. Doom," the armored figure intoned.

All look of enjoyment left her features. "Oh, it's you, Vic."

While the faceplate of the armor was frozen in place, it still managed to give off an ominous glare. "Ware your tongue, woman. I've dispatched others who have shown such a lack of respect for their betters."

Saeko remained unmoved. "Did they have sex with you, too? No? Well, I think that gives me a certain amount of leeway, don't you?" She waved him inside, then went to a cupboard. She opened it and lifted the top off a cookie jar. Reaching inside, she pulled out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. Putting one in her mouth, she lit it and took a deep drag. After a moment she exhaled the smoke in a large cloud.

"You still smoke?" Dr. Doom asked.

Leaning against a counter, she took another drag, then puffed the smoke in his general direction. "Actually I hadn't touched one in three years. I guess you bring out the smoker in me."

He remained silent for a moment, then said, "I'm here for the girl."

"It's not a purely social call? My goodness." Sarcasm, rather than venom, dripped from the voice. "She's in her lab in the basement."

"Oh?" She had her own lab? How intriguing. He headed for the door Saeko indicated, opened it, and went down the stairs to the basement below.

While on the stairway he saw the entirety of the basement was taken up by a variety of electronic, scientific, and mechanical equipment that could be used for a wide range of applications. Most of the machinery was easily identifiable, but there were a handful of devices he would actually have to examine to accurately determine their purpose. That in itself was most impressive.

He took in the girl for the first time. No more than sixteen, she had dark hair and features reminiscent of her mother. Currently she was bent over some small device, using a soldering iron on it. She had a set of goggles, high tech and no doubt magnifying her vision, on her face as she worked.

Before he could do anything, Ami said, "Hello," while she continued her work.

Doom processed that information. "You are not surprised to see me?"

Ami continued using the solder for intricate work. "I've known you were here since you entered the yard."

Doom appeared nonplussed. "Curious, I thought I had successfully bypassed the sensors you placed out there without you realizing they had been tampered with."

Ami paused at that, then finally removed her goggles and looked him face to faceplate. Yes, she was the spitting image of her mother. "The ones permanently stationed in the yard, yes. However, I have one anchored in the another dimension that momentarily pops up in this one at five second intervals, remaining just long enough to perform a scan before returning to its home dimension. Unless you run a sensor sweep during the tenth of a second it's here you'll never find it."

The girl was already experimenting with extra-dimensional travel. How precocious of her. Doom didn't immerse himself in the science until college. Of course he was learning magic at the time, and didn't have the technical resources in his youth that the girl did. Still, her obvious skill was cause for more hope. He also made a mental note to add a sensor to detect recent extra-dimensional activity to his armor at the next available opportunity. Perhaps he could use some of Ami's equipment, since he was a bit strapped for resources at the moment.

But it was time to move along with his master plan. It had required a bit of consideration, having never given such a speech before. But he was a genius as well as a master orator (and not a windbag, as that Neanderthal Grimm referred to him). He had chosen and rehearsed the speech that would have maximum effectiveness with a sixteen-year old girl.

Clearing his throat, he intoned, "Know this, girl. I am... your father." Yes, the dramatic pause was definitely the clincher.

Her response was, "I know."

Well, so much for the various responses he had planned out for her denial. Had Doom been made of lesser stuff, he might have pouted beneath his armor. But while others wouldn't know, he would. And wasn't his opinion the most important one of all? "So, what did your mother tell you of me?"

Ami considered that. "Well, when I asked her who my father was, she said when she was studying at med school abroad she had a brief, torrid affair with a suave, charming, but painfully egotistical physics major. It was during one of the 'off periods' in your relationship that you were expelled over some sort of accident. Shortly after that she learned she was pregnant, but you had gone to contemplate your navel in some mountain in Tibet and she had no idea on how to contact you. So she decided to raise me herself. Eventually, you became the king of Latveria and she told me who you were, though she called you 'that armored asshole', then started mumbling to herself under her breath. She also lit up a cigarette, which was odd, since I had no idea she smoked."

"She told you it three years ago, didn't she?"

For the first time since he entered the basement, Ami appeared taken back. "Yes, how did you know?"

"Doom has his ways." It was always to one's benefit to keep everyone off guard, even family.

At least the details were accurate, when filtering Saeko's temperamental nature and descriptions. Meeting Saeko was the one thing in the world in which Doom's painful acquaintance with that clod, Grimm, had been beneficial. Grimm and Richards had been going to a mixer, and Reed had invited Doom along. Before Doom could disdainfully explain the inherently frivolous and moronic nature of this mating ritual, Grimm had the audacity to call Doom not just a stick in the mud, but implied that he had no talent in picking up women. Just because Doom hadn't sought a mate at that juncture was no reason to imply he lacked an ability that any commoner could manage. Why, Doom even had a girlfriend, though he had left Valeria behind in Latveria. So on this one occasion Doom accepted the gauntlet thrown by Grimm.

True, at first the potential women were so insipidly stupid they didn't realize their great fortune in capturing Victor Von Doom's attention for even a moment, and had the audacity to refuse his advances. But six beers later he had encountered the surprisingly charming and delightful Saeko Mizuno. Not only that, she was smart enough to hold an intelligent conversation with. And the sex, that had been, well, most impressive. Of course their relationship had its ups and downs, such as her disapproval for his long term plan for world domination, and her simplistic desire to be a mere doctor and have a 'normal life' drove him crazy. And the woman had a temper and tongue that could drive a man crazy. Also she had never really showed him the proper respect he deserved, though despite that sarcastic streak he was always under the impression that she *did* respect him, and even when they broke up, she never saw anyone else. Eventually, they'd get back together and the make up sex was always incredible. There were times he wondered if he hadn't blown up the lab, and scarred his face, how things would have turned out between them.

Blast, he was becoming distracted. Seeing Saeko in the flesh had brought back memories he hadn't thought of for over a decade. Brought them back like a hammer to the head. It was time to return to the issue at hand. Now that the introductions were out of the way, it was time to come to the crux of the matter. "I have come to acknowledge our relationship, as well as have you assume your proper mantle."

"You mean you want me to help you reclaim your throne from its new queen whom the populace adores and who has set Latveria upon an economic fast track. The answer is no," Ami said firmly.

"She's a robot that wants to take over the world," Doom insisted.

"If she is, then when that time comes, I shall deal with it."

Doom raised an eyebrow. He was about to think of just how pompous that sounded when he was hit with this horrible feeling of deja-vu. Well, perhaps coming from the fruit of his loins, it was not so much pompous as a mark of confidence and assurance. In anyone else though such bravado would be not be warranted.

There was one more tact to try. One that no sixteen year-old girl could resist, since all of them craved it even more than a cell phone with unlimited texting. "Help me retake the throne and you'll be a princess. I'll hold balls in your name for all the land to attend. There will be lots of pretty dresses, too."

Ami frowned. "While I don't deny an odd sort of appeal for a monarchial system of government, I neither wish to lead it, nor cement the likes of you as the leader."

"What? Why on earth not?"

Ami explained. "Your intrinsic flaw is that you don't seek to lead for the enlightenment of all, but because you feel you're entitled to defacto leadership since you're the most qualified. It's for the aggrandizement of your ego, and will eventually lead to ruin since its inconceivable to you that anyone could be superior in leadership ability to you."

"No one is." And that was that.

"And that attitude is why cannot support you in such an effort."

Doom had this horrible feeling, 'that was that' had been added to the end of her statement. This was both frustrating and disturbing as his subconscious began to wonder if this was what others felt like when they talked to him.

It was time to fall back to his last offensive. "I'm your father, and I order you to do it."

This time she snorted in derision before wordlessly turning around and going back to work.

Well, that snort certainly came from Saeko, right down to the exceptionally low nasal sound. He had been on the receiving end often enough. How dare the child not only refuse him, but ignore him as well. A daughter was not supposed to be like this. She was supposed to be dutiful and obedient, but she was proving herself far too independent minded, stubborn, and headstrong. Had he encountered this defiance in another when he was in charge of his country, he would have had them reeducated with one of his mental programming inducers. But the idea of sticking Ami under such a thing had no appeal for him, a first.

Well, there were more conventional ways to bring the girl around to his way of thinking. He was Dr. Doom, and she his child. Once she calmed down and thought with a clear head, and he explained in detail why it was appropriate she help him restore his rightful place as ruler of Latveria, she would see things his way.

"Cross the interface with the power source and it will add 20% efficiency to the design," he told her before going back up the stairs.

Reentering the kitchen, he found Saeko sitting at table, a number of cigarettes already snuffed out in an ashtray. Her smoking had always been a source of irritation to him when they had been dating. Really, she was a doctor and knew damn well what she was doing to her body. He hadn't developed a cure for cancer yet (only because he hadn't put his mind to it), but she needed to be careful. He did not want her to die stupidly.

Saeko gave him a half-lidded stare that he recognized as general disapproval. Vehement disapproval entailed throwing things at him.

"The girl is appallingly disobedient," Doom informed her.

"Wouldn't help you with the coup, huh?"

Blast. This was what happened when you let a woman get close. They could... anticipate you. Even Richards wasn't as good as Saeko was at it. He wondered if Reed had the same problems with Susan Storm.

"It will take some small measure of effort to bring her to my way of thinking," he informed her.

As soon as he finished saying it, the look in Saeko's eyes changed. It took him a moment to place it as it had been directed at him before, though never by her, even at the most tumultuous times in their relationship.

It was a very deadly look. It took him a second to understand its origins. Mothers were always defensive of their young. Despite the fact it was directed at him, his opinion of Saeko elevated once again. "With talk. She is my daughter, after all."

Yes, that assuaged her, and was sincere. Being his offspring, well, a different set of standards applied to Ami than the rest of humanity. She was a Von Doom. That made her better than everyone else. Since righteousness and the facts were on his side, it was inevitable she would eventually see things his way.

Saeko said, "Since it sounds like you'll be staying for a while, I'll make up the guest room."

Oh, he hadn't considered that, yet. It would make things more efficient. He might even get to know the girl and figure out how to more easily persuade her. And while he had safe houses, staying here was more appealing on some indefinable level. "I accept your invitation."

Saeko nodded, then added. "After you get settled in, why don't we sit down and talk for a while? Catch up on old times. I can tell you how my medical career is going, you can regale me with tales of your despotism and how Richard's is to blame for it all. It'll be like old times."

Doom grumbled under his mask, but said nothing. He'd show her. He wouldn't talk about

the wonders of his leadership and how much better his country was under his rule. And he wouldn't even mention Richards. Well, not a lot. He really was responsible for many crimes against Doom.

Then something else she said registered with him. 'Like old times' often included... well, while their relationship had been volatile, it had also been very physical, and truth be told, it had been a while for him. Doom was no cheap slut who bedded every woman that came within arm's length. He was very discerning, and none had met his criteria of late. And Saeko was still quite fit. Motherhood agreed with her, to be certain. While her outfit was loose, he could still make out her womanly curves underneath it all.

But wait, maybe she just wanted to talk. Blast it. He had forgotten how frustrating women were with their mixed signals. When was talk a code word for sex, and when was it just talk?

Well, it appeared he wasn't going to be bored, in any case. Perhaps this delay in reclaiming his mantel of leadership wouldn't be the impediment he had thought it would be.

[End interlude]


	38. Act IV chap 2

Avenging

Act IV

The Hate Monger and the Peacemaker

Chapter 2

Any and all C+C appreciated. You can contact me at:

[]

All the previous chapters and my other works are stored at:

At :

.net/

Standard disclaimer: I don't own any of the Marvel characters or other characters from the numerous animes which are within.

Here's a great reference guide for many character and objects in the Marvel Universe.

[.]

[Writer's Note: This chapter mostly features background and secondary characters. But at least they have mostly appeared before. Also it refers to some events in previous chapters. And yes, we'll finally close in a bit on the mistress's identity. In fact, let's kill somebody. Then next chapter we'll focus on the Ranma regulars.]

xxxxxxx

She lounged in her chamber, only half the viewscreens on as information, both textual and visual, pored over them. Survey teams had taken some very interesting readings in the Antarctic that could lead to that power source they'd been looking for since the Serpent Society Affair. And Mr. Comrade was already earning his keep with some very intriguing designs on that 'Super Trooper Armor' to say nothing of the Devastator Unit. A pity the same thing couldn't be said for Kerwin Kronos' time travel experiments. Now that one was becoming a vast money pit. Maybe time travel just wasn't feasible with the current level of technology. Of course if they could be the first, well, once you controlled time, you could see to it you were the only one who had it. Maybe it would be best to go with it a while longer. The money was flowing in rivers thanks to her other schemes.

But for all the reports she received, something else troubled her. Finally she spoke to the room's only other occupant, a non-descript Indian. "I made an error, my little toy. I became overconfident in my plans and took a foolish, unnecessary risk in the whole Shinobi Shaw matter last night. Those Hydra imbeciles called too much attention to the party. There will be pictures he might see. We must move up our time table to today. See to it."

The man's reply was a simple, "Yes, Mistress," before walking on, his form starting to shift.

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Kaori Makimura entered the room her detective force had been assigned, the largest one thanks to the prestige of the case. The dozen officers assigned to it were working frantically, as always in the earliest stages of a case when there was evidence aplenty. It was only after the obvious material was taken care of that it started to become scarce. How unfortunate that traffic had been so bad, or she would have been in earlier.

"So what do we have?" she asked.

Ryo Saeba answered, all business for a change. "Explosion in the office of one Shinobi Shaw. We've confirmed two dead, himself and his secretary."

Kaori pondered that. "That's the one that bought his way out of a rape conviction last year, right?"

"Yes."

"Too bad about the secretary." She looked at the photos of the office. Or what had been an office. Now it mostly looked like a big hole in the side of a building. "That's one hell of an explosion. You sure he was in it?"

"We found part of a skull with some brain matter in it." Ryo's cell phone rang and he looked at the number. "In fact, this is the lab. Should be the results." He held the phone up to his ear, nodded, then hung up. "It's confirmed by his DNA. It was still on file from the rape case. That was Shinobi Shaw. So unless he could spare some of that head of his..."

Kaori looked at the picture again. "Any hint as to what explosive was used and how it was delivered?"

One of the other detectives shook his head. "Neither. In fact, CSI teams haven't found any explosive residue at all."

Kaori shook her head. "That makes no sense. Explosives always leave some sort of residue."

Kyo Saeba put down the phone he had been using. "Hey, Boss. Someone says they saw some blonde gaijin girl that couldn't have been more than thirteen head toward the office right before the explosion. Human bomber of some sort, maybe?"

Ryo jerked his head. "Wait a minute. Someone run that footage from the ATM camera that was directly across from the entrance of the building. Take it back ten minutes before the explosion."

One of the men did so. Everyone's eyes were riveted to the screen as playback occurred. In less than a minute a blonde foreign girl matching the description entered the building.

Ryo snapped his fingers. "Thought so. And now that you mentioned the lack of residue, I think I recognize her. And if I'm right, there's a perfectly good reason you couldn't find any." He went to a computer and punched in some information. "Bingo!" He made a finger gun at the screen and shot it. "It's Minnie-May Hopkins, aka Nitro, the Exploding Girl. She leaves no residue because she is the explosive."

"There's only one problem, genius." Kaori rapped her knuckles on the screen. "It says she's currently incarcerated."

Ryo wrapped his knuckles against Kaori's skull, much to her irritation. "Obviously she broke out. Look, I'll call the prison and prove it."

Five minutes later, a frustrated Ryo Saeba scowled at the phone. "That was the warden. She says Hopkins is in her specially designed cell. Even had her blow up to prove it was really her and not some imposter." He stared at the screen. "I don't understand."

Kaori looked at the video image again of the girl on the screen. "No, I think you're on to something."

The detectives continued poring over the case. One hour became two, which became three. It was easy to keep track of since every hour the commissioner called. Shinobi's wealthy father, Sebastian, kept pressuring the police to find out who murdered his son. Ah, to be rich and obnoxious.

It was during the third hour that Kyo found something else. "Boss. Brokers just transferred some records over. Apparently Shinobi sold off all his company stock an hour before he bit the big one. Personally went to the broker to make the sale. The only problem is everyone swears he was in his office at the time the sale went down."

He loaded up the video file of the security footage in the stock broker's office. It showed Shaw himself talking and signing several documents and handing them to the broker.

Kaori said, "They can run fingerprints on the documents he signed."

Kyo appeared unsettled. "Yeah, but for some odd reason, I think they'll match. We'll have electronics forensics run a search on where the stocks went to."

"Already got them," one of the detective shouted. "Shell companies. All the stocks were transferred immediately. It'll take a while to find out where they really ended up."

"Keep at it," Kaori said. Oh yes, something very bad was going on, but the first vestiges were forming in her mind. There had to be super-powered beings involved, she could smell them. More of them screwing up her life and making her job harder. Someone really need to take care of them. Ordinary criminal screwed the world up just fine. She didn't need extraordinary ones adding to it.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Detective Hiro Matsui exited the office, telling the others he had to go outside for a smoke. Thanks to the wonders of modern society, this entailed going outside the building altogether.

Rather than going outside, he went into an empty office, closing the door behind him. He pulled out a phone and dialed a special number. After a moment, he said, "There's a problem. They're getting close..."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The woman snarled as she heard the report. She turned to her servant. "I was afraid of this. This is what happens when you rush things. Aside from the elimination of Kodachi Kunou, everything has been running so smoothly, too. Well, time for you to contact that Lamperouge fellow. We'll be needing his abilities."

Once again her faithful servant changed form, this time to that of the unmasked Man Brute, and exited the room.

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Lelouch Lamperouge sat up idly in bed, relaxing. He looked over at his latest conquest. What was her name? She was the lead singer in that hideously named group. Oh yes, Iwasawa of the Girls Dead Monster. A fetching thing, and not bad in bed at all. He'd probably keep her around for a while, at least until some new famous figure came on the scene that caught his eye. Then he'd use his eye to catch her. Heh, what a play on words, and power.

He slowly rose out of bed of the penthouse suite that was at his disposal. He had an 'in' with the owner of the hotel chain. The in being his abilities. Nothing but the best for Lelouch, thanks to the powers of his mesmerism. He was decadent, indolent, and a complete hedonist. Gods, it was the life.

And then the door to his room was kicked inward, literally knocked off the hinges A gaijin of some sort, male, very big and beefy. Lelouch had no idea who he was or why he was after him, nor did it matter. He shouted, "You there!" Yes, the fool looked him eye to eye. Lelouch's eye glowed red. "Now stop," he ordered.

The man walked across the room, grabbing Lelouch by the neck. He continued looking him in the eyes. "As I anticipated, Mesmero, your abilities only affect living beings."

The hold on his neck tightened and Lelouch felt himself losing consciousness. Blast, if only he could speak, he could have Iwasawa hurl herself at that man. As it was, it looked like it might finally be the end. No! It wasn't fair. He led in idyllic life. How dare this bastard take that from him!

And then the figure changed, shifting in form. Lelouch stared in shock as it became an identical version of him.

The second Lelouch stared at him for a second. "I see how your abilities work. You can hypnotize someone only once in their lives, but that control is indefinite until you release it. You can control no more than twelve people at any one time. If you wish to go beyond that number you can either yield control by selecting someone already in your possession, or the person under domination the longest will be released."

He looked over at Iwasawa, who was watching everything in numb shock. Lelouch II's eye met the girl's eyes and glowed red. Hers glowed a moment in response. "Come here."

She obeyed.

"Template Power configuration works. Leave and forget you were ever here."

She did as she was bade.

Lelouch II again looked at the being in his grip. "My mistress has a proposition for you. She would like to make use of your abilities. You will be paid handsomely for your efforts. I would recommend you accept her offer, as you will not like the consequences of refusal. By the way, you should know that now that I am familiar with your abilities, your first act upon meeting my mistress will be to possess her mind and immediately release it, as that will render her immune to her power. To do otherwise will result in your death. Raise your eyes up an down if you wish to agree."

Lelouch did so. Blast, it looked like he was going to have to get a real job now. He loathed the idea. But it was better than death. Unless he was assigned a cubicle. Then he might as well have his neck broken.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Coming," Kaori snapped, wondering who in the hell was bothering her at this hour. Really, it was nearly ten o' clock. If it was those Saeba twins drunk and making caustic remarks about her, she would shoot them in the head, even if it would leave her understaffed.

She had a holstered gun hanging on a hook on the door. No sense in taking chances. It could always be some thug that was upset that she had arrested them and had them imprisoned for years. Don't want to end up in jail? Don't break the law. Simple rules.

She opened the door, keeping the chain lock in place. It was some handsome fellow with dark hair. "Yes?"

He pointed at his eye and said, "Contact."

Kaori looked right at the eye as it glowed red.

Lelouch spoke. "The Shinobi Shaw case is unsolvable. You'll hit brick wall after brick wall, never successfully figuring it out. Especially the stock trail. Do you understand?"

Kaori nodded her head easily. "Sure, unsolvable cases happen all the time."

"Good." He looked Kaori over. Bah, much too tomboyish and flat-chested for his taste. He'd find some other hot chick to mesmerize and bang. Thanks to his new 'employer' three of his slots were now filled. Still, as long as the Saebas and Makimura were under his influence, the Shaw case was a dead end, which was what his new employer wanted. At least she paid well. Oh, but if he ever figured out how to have her killed without siccing that doppelganger on him, she'd be sorry.

He left, wondering if he should try some superhero. He'd never had one of those before, and most of them were very hot and athletic. That was food for thought.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

[End chapter]

Yes, it's brief. Next chapter will have the Ranma regulars and something cool happen.


	39. Act Iv Chap 3

Avenging

Act IV

The Hate Monger and the Peacemaker

Chapter 3

Any and all C+C appreciated. You can contact me at:

[]

All the previous chapters and my other works are stored at:

At :

.net/

Standard disclaimer: I don't own any of the Marvel characters or other characters from the numerous animes which are within.

Here's a great reference guide for many character and objects in the Marvel Universe.

[.]

[Writer's note: Don't worry about the whole mutant-Alice thing as the characters related to that fall under the 'single chapter' category. The main character in this one you'll want to remember is the one responsible for everything]

xxxxxxx

Ranma entered the Tendou family room, spying Nabiki. She sat next to the table, casually watching television. After looking around for a while, he finally decided to ask, "Where is everyone?"

Nabiki's eyes remained glued to the set as she answered, "Kasumi's at her new job, your dad and mine got hauled off by the little letch, and Akane is there." She pointed at the television where a large auditorium jam-packed with people was being shown. "It's the Reo Mouri concert. She got comped by a couple of friends."

"Oh." That could be... bad. Left alone with him, Nabiki might not be able to keep her hands off him. Like all the Tendou girls, she had expressed more than a casual interest in him. Well, they kept it to themselves pretty well, but he could sense it. Best to go out on patrol, just to play it safe in case she tried to jump his bones. "I'm going to get changed and head out."

Nabiki shrugged nonchalantly and continued watching. She was probably pining for him. At least he thought she might be. In any case, it was time to put on the old union suit underneath his clothing and go.

xxxxxxxxxxx

Akane found herself being jostled in a sea of humanity, and the concert hadn't even started. She was amazed Yuka and Sayuri had gotten tickets to the Mouri concert, and had been kind enough to give them to her for free, despite the fact she had volunteered to pay for them. They really were the best of friends. Of course, at the moment they were helping play pinball, with Akane as the ball being bounced from bumper to bumper. Oh well, at least she had her cane for support. And the concert should be starting soon.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Reo Mouri admired himself in the mirror one more time. Perfect. Not that his looks mattered all that much. Well, they did for people that just stared at his posters and images, and he was bishonen gorgeous. But as for the people that actually listened to his live performances, well, they couldn't help but love his singing, thanks to his abilities.

There was a firm knock on the door. He told whoever it was to come in. Much to his astonishment, it was two people he was quite familiar with: Narumi Anjou and Alison Blaire. "Well, well, if it isn't two of my comrades from the Alice Academy. So nice to see you. I would have given you backstage passes if I had known you were coming. Well, I guess someone with a mutant pheromone wouldn't need one." He stared knowingly at Narumi.

"We prefer the term Alice," Blaire said.

Reo rolled his eyes. "Oh yes. 'By using the term 'Alice' it implies a sense of extraordinary wonder, rather than fear and loathing that the term 'mutant' does.' Really, is that ridiculous ad campaign Dixon came up with actually working?"

"Yes, it does," Alison said, a bit miffed at the sarcasm. "You'd be surprised at the number of connections we've established among the elite and powers that be with careful selection of Alice abilities working in concert with their goals. And the term Alice is being used with increasing frequency. True integration has begun."

Reo suddenly gained a shifty gleam to his eyes. "You know, you have quite the singing voice. Perhaps we should form a duet."

Alison found herself starting to nod just as a Narumi said, "Enough. Don't think of using your voice manipulation Alice on us, or you'll be sorry." The warning shook Alison out of her stupor. Now she glared evilly at Reo.

Reo's response was to become playful. "You spoil all my fun."

Narumi wasn't having any of it. "You need to stop using your Alice during the concerts. Once people find out you're employing it, they'll accuse you of manipulating their minds. And honestly, it's beneath you. You have a great singing voice-"

"-That will sell millions while my Alice will net me tens of millions," Reo completed. "It's part of my natural abilities, I'll be damned if I don't use them as so many of our fellow mutants do," he emphasized the words.

"You'll give the Alice community a bad name," Narumi warned.

"They'll never discover it. It doesn't leave traces of any kind, even psionic ones," Reo assured them. "Now if you don't mind, I have a concert to perform. Shoo, shoo." He waved them off. Reluctantly, they did so, leaving the room.

Reo wasn't surprised by his former comrades' attitude. Xavier was a real conservative when it came to using powers for personal gain rather than for the good of the community. Like Reo gave a damn about others, except in an abstract way. While he probably did have more of a Magneto-like outlook on life, he wasn't interested in furthering anyone's cause other than his own.

There was a booming knock on the door this time. "What do you want now?" he snapped in an irritated tone.

The door flew open. Standing in the doorway was a large man. He wore a purple conical mask and matching tabard with an 'H' on it. Thick arms and legs jutted out from the tabard, encased in chain mail, while bulky leather boots and gloves completed the outfit. The only part of his body that was visible were crimson eyes through slits in the mask.

That boded ill. Reo used his Alice. "Why don't you calm down, friend?"

The figure jerked for a moment, as though stung by something. Then his crimson eyes narrowed. "I see. You influence emotions through vocal control. Unfortunately for you, the only emotion I feel is hate. Allow me to demonstrate."

The air was suddenly filled with an overpowering emotion.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Here he comes!"

Akane looked past Yuka's shoulder as Reo walked on to the stage, head down, almost slouching. That was odd. He was usually more energetic during his performances.

Reo grabbed the microphone, lacking any style or grace. Some in the audience began to wonder what was going on.

Reo held the microphone to his lips and chanted in a dirge. "Murder."

Everyone in the audience jerked simultaneously. Akane felt something ring, not through her skull, but rather directly through her brain.

Reo followed with an intoned, "Death."

More sharply this time, another thought, and she felt something slither up from the reptile portion of her brain. Something a part of her welcomed, despite her subconscious having kept it suppressed for so long.

Reo added, "Kill."

Now Akane's teeth ground together, her heart raced, her fists clenched. She trembled. Something was overcoming her.

Again Reo repeated the words, more loudly this time, and with each intonation, her fury grew. Dimly, Akane was aware of Yuka, Sayuri, and the rest of the crowd reacting much the same way.

And then she realized Reo was right. She brought her cane up in the air...

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Uniform on under his regular street clothes. 'Lucky Hubcap' tucked under his arm, Ranma darted past the living room. "I'm out of here, Nabiki."

She leapt at him, rage etched on her face, shouting, "Murder!"

Ranma was so shocked at the unprovoked attack that he was taken off-guard. Nabiki struck him hard in the face with a fist, causing him to drop his shield.

She shouted, "Death!" and slammed a palm strike into his jaw, snapping it back.

"Kill!" A reverse kick struck him in the gut, sending him across the floor and out of the house.

"Murder!" Nabiki shouted again, leaping up in the air, targeting Ranma for a savage double stomp that would cave in his chest.

Ranma rolled out of the way, barely evading the feet as they plunged into the wooden boards of the flooring. He rolled into a standing position then, only to have Nabiki grab his shirt and flip him over her head, shouting, "Death!"

Ranma shifted his weight in mid-air, his shirt tearing as he pulled free from her grasp. Again, she attacked him, forcing him on the defensive, as she continued her mantra of three words, repeating them in the same order again and again as she attacked.

Finally, he tagged her with a powerful left to the jaw. She rolled with it and struck with a backfist of near bone-shattering proportions. Ranma hadn't realized just how good the girl was, and it was obvious she was in a murderous frenzy. While he had a number of crazed people attack him, this was worse than usual, especially because the behavior didn't make sense.

But his defensive posture finally paid off as he started to recover, though her attacks, despite being blocked, still took their toll on the youth. He counterattacked with a series of hard fists. Much to his surprise, she didn't do anything to defend herself, but continued with a savage frenzy which made him back off once again.

At last, he came up with a strategy. He started backpedaling, allowing Nabiki to continue going all out. While unrelenting attacks was a technique that could serve one well, it had its flaws. One he was about to exploit.

The battle went outside. He allowed Nabiki to press him backward until they came to the boulder in the yard. On one hard fist toward him, Ranma ducked. Nabiki's fist smashed full tilt into the boulder. Since she was so blinded by rage, she held nothing back, and even in her maddened state, felt intense agony from the blow and held her hand in pain.

Ranma unleashed a full out strike to the back of her neck. While it didn't knock her out, it stunned her. He then knocked her feet out from under her so she landed on her stomach. Landing on top of her, he pinned her arms behind her, rendering them unusable due to his leverage and far superior strength. She tried using her legs to rise up, but Ranma kicked them out from under her. Still, she struggled like a hellion, shouting her urge to murder, death, and kill him.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Akane raised her stick high overhead, trying to cave in the skull of Sayuri. However, another audience member, in an equally homicidal frenzy, slammed into Akane from behind, making her lose her balance. As she fell, she tried to right herself with her cane, which struck the ground.

A bolt of lightning pierced the heavens, crashing into Akane and triggering her transformation into the Goddess of Thunder.

"What wonderment is this?" Thor said, freed of the psychotic fury that had been inhabiting her mortal form. With a more sane eye, she looked around and saw the entire crowd had turned into a pack of rabid animals in human form. All around her was chaos as the masses sought to kill one another. Already, some were falling to others' attacks.

And then once again the venomous spewings of Reo assaulted Thor's senses with another urge to murder. Anger began to build in the goddess' form.

"I say thee nay!" She tapped her hammer twice into the ground. Instantly, the heavens poured forth a torrential downpour that was testament that even the gods wept. People were hammered to the ground by the deluge of so much water instantly upon them. Thunder drowned out the urgings of Reo on stage. Thor stood back for a moment, reveling in the fury of the tempest.

Reo continued trying to urge the crowd on, but then a coil wrapped itself around his throat, preventing him from speaking. He was jerked to the ground, much like a runaway calf wrangled by a cowboy.

Narumi kept a tight hold on his one time friend, silence reigning thanks to his companion's Alice ability which had cocooned them from Reo's power of suggestion. He signaled to Alison with a nod of his head.

And Alison Blair began absorbing all the sound in the arena. Tens of thousand of people screaming in rage, the roar of thousands of gallons of water, the thunder from the heavens as lightning struck all around. And she glowed bright as a newborn sun, her ability converting the sound into light. The glare caught the attention of all who bore witness to it. And when she reached her peak, she released her 'Dazzler' effect.

The strobe light flash stimulated the visual centers of the brain, causing all who witnessed it to enter a trance-like state which calmed them, making them stare like zombies at the stage.

As Thor's anger waned, so did the tempest, the rain lessening until it was a light drizzle. With the crowed entranced, Alison reduced her light effect to nothing.

"We're getting out of here," Narumi said, hauling the now unconscious Reo off stage with him. They needed to get him to Xavier and find out what was wrong with him. Reo was unpleasant, but this was something else entirely. Also, Narumi had a horrible feeling that Alices were about to have a whole lot of crap dumped on their heads with the incident. Someone was going to suspect mental manipulation of some kind, and it might not take much for someone to put two and two together.

He looked around. There were numerous injuries in the stadium, some of them appearing quite bad. And the concert had been televised, which would had tens of thousands more. While those near a television would be affected by Alison's 'Dazzler', others would have drifted away from them in a lethal frenzy. And Reo's effects would last a good 15 to 30 minutes depending on the person affected. It was going to be a bloodbath.

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Out at the edge of the stadium, the Hate Monger looked on. Blast, those meddling heroes. Had Reo's concert gone on unimpeded, the death toll would have been staggering. As it was, there would only be massive injuries a paltry number of deaths.

He turned away. Oh well. In any case, this had been but one move in the campaign, not an end gambit. Oh no, he had much better, more effective ideas in mind toward that end. Many more indeed.

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Ranma felt Nabiki's struggles start to lessen. His first assumption was that she had grown tired, but then he heard her say in groggy tones, "What's going on?"

Hmm. It sounded suspiciously like mind control. Actually, he had suspected it for a while. Mind-controlling villains were a lot more common than people thought. Although he figured there was one test to try. "How do you feel about murder, death, and killing?"

"Like I'm going to do all three to you if you don't let me up off the ground, you !#$%!"

Ah, the dulcet sounds of rational hate instead of irrational. It sounded like Nabiki was back to normal. Still, Ranma was on guard as he let her on her feet, ready for an attack.

Nabiki was in a normal rage as she said, "Where do you get off pinning me to..." she trailed off, staring as his chest.

It was then he looked down and saw the familiar red sun on his chest through the tear in his shirt. He looked at her, panicked, "I can explain-"

"You're Captain Japan!"

Well, that wasn't the explanation he was about to go for, but it did make sense, since it was the truth.

He was in for it now.

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[End chapter]

There you go. Something happened with the regulars, and you got to meet one of the main villains of the Act. Enjoy.


End file.
